Ranma's Wild Adventures
by DWM
Summary: Ranma lost the battle at mount Horai against Herb, and her friends were not what Ranma had thought. Not happy about returning home, she meets a strange old man and gets a strange gift. A cure for her curse? Is it even possible? Tenchi Muyo Crossover.
1. Lost Hope

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma Half or Tenchi Muyo. I just write for fun and for free.

Note: I wrote between 2002 and 2004 a lot of Ranma stories. The only thing is, I never put them online, because nobody would read it since it was written in Dutch. Also back then I liked to mess with Ranma so, don't be surprised that most of them are 'I'm stuck as a girl but at least I have a big power up to compensate' stories.

A strange language is still a very weak point of me, and even after years, I still struggle with English. Writing is no problem, but translating will take a lot of my time. Work written in one day, will cost me a week to translate it, and then I'm still not sure if I got it right. You get the idea…

I hope you will enjoy it… but I'm unsure if it is good enough to continue…

DWM

- 08/19/2009 - Beta done by Deathgeonous

**Chapter 1 - Lost hope**

______________________________________

The almost destroyed Mount Horai offered a sad sight. At the top of the mountain two people fought hard, but the ultimate winner was not the person one would have expected.

On the ground lay a red-haired girl, exhausted, bloody, black and blue; Ranma Saotome was finally defeated.

A certain prince of the Musk, a young man named Herb wanted to end this battle.

Herbs had in his right hand an energy sword; it was made of Ki and he was ready to behead her. It was clear for Ranma that her life was over, but something did stop Herbs execution. There was no fear in Ranma's eyes. The irritating persistent eyes were now empty; her soul was broken and robbed of all the fighting spirit. He doubted that this fight had any honour left. The prince of the Musk pulled his hand back and the Ki-sword disappeared.

"I hadn't expected that you would be betrayed by your comrades," mumbled Herb. "They have destroyed the magic bucket and the magic kettle, and then escaped like cowards. The magic artefacts were irreplaceable and important heirlooms of the Musk."

The red-haired girl was silent and closed her eyes. Ryoga and Mouse, her so-called 'friends'! They had probably planned this a long time ago.

"It is unfortunate, and certainly for you, redhead."

Ranma tiredly looked up. "If you hadn't treated Akane so badly ... then all this had never happened. It was really a stupid fight with a ridiculously high price."

The prince of the Musk frowned, and then shook his head.

"I... I am a prince, but I admit, I have acted foolishly, not like a man in my position. But what else is expected of a man in my situation... I was at that moment very irritated and emotional, because of the… monthly event, in my female form..." The last part was said with a red face.

If Ranma had still the strength, she would have had facefaulted after this astounding revelation.

"Kami-Sama, why did I deserve this," Ranma groaned. "I am stuck in my girl form; my manhood is gone for good. And you'll see that idiot of an Oyaji will leave me with that old Tendo, because their stupid promise. Man, if I go home... Come on freak prince, I don't want this life! Just kill me!"

"... No ..." The prince refused firmly, and shook his head.

"Why? You know very well what it means to be stuck in a wrong body. I've lost, you've won, and I know that you wanted me dead!" the red-haired girl hissed.

Herb snorted, and the look in his eyes was hard. "Yes… I wanted you dead, but through your words I realize how foolish this fight was. I refuse to take your life; there is no honour in it."

Her blue eyes stared to the prince. Herb was right; it was not a battle in which honour was involved. It was for the magic kettle, so that she could be a man again. But since Ryoga destroyed the two objects with a Ki-blast, it was all over.

Ranma growled at Herb. "Well… prince, don't expect my thanks," she said sarcastically, and then she crawled slowly up and wiped the dust of her clothes.

"You're welcome," the prince simply replied.

The redhead stared to the prince with a dark look, but her anger quickly evaporated. The emotional pain was too great.

Their attention was suddenly distracted by two persons, who came running to them. The two were servants/friends of Prince Herb, the two boys named Lime and Mint.

Herb growled. "The two idiots, they are late!"

"Master Herb!" they cried simultaneously. "We were deceived; there were no women's breasts in the woods."

The prince rubbed his forehead and was almost tempted to launch both idiots into the stratosphere.

"You two donkeys have failed!" He cried angry. "The artefacts have been destroyed, and the responsible persons are already gone with the wind!"

The two boys were shocked and fell on their knees. "Master Herb… forgive us. We were surprised by a tornado and fell in a river where suddenly the two men appeared. They told us that somewhere there were women's breasts to see!"

The prince sighed deeply because of the stupidity. "Things can not be undone. The most important fact is that I got my manhood back. It is a pity about the two artefacts… but maybe… I think it is maybe better. I don't think it is wise to continue the tradition of our forefathers. There are already enough victims, myself included."

Herb then turned to Ranma. "I can't provide relief for your unfortunate situation. But know this, that you are probably stuck in your young girl form until you're dead. When I used the magic artefact on you, it changed a few things with the Jusenkyo curse. It means, when you die, you will still look like the girl as you are now, unchanged. It sounds like a nice idea for some people, but for me the price is too high. As prince of the Musk, I can't afford to be a woman. But whether you experience this like a curse or a blessing that is up to you. Farewell Ranma Saotome."

The three departed quickly, and left a silent Ranma behind. She kept staring to them until they disappeared from sight. The only thing that still remained was the empty feeling in her soul.

Eventually she made a long sigh and began slowly to walk to the place where her belongings were left behind.

"Sometimes I wonder, what's brewing in the heads of Ryoga and Mousse. But anyway, those idiots will not escape punishment," she hissed darkly.

Ryoga and Mousse were really idiots; maybe they will think that she was killed by Herb and will come up with a few stories, but she was sure that a few telephone calls will change the situation for them very fast.

A few hours later she started to make the phone calls in the first village that she entered.

**o000o**

"Hello, this is the Tendo's," Nabiki's voice sounded through the phone.

Ranma took a deep breath and just gathered all her courage together. "Hello Nabiki, it's me, Ranma."

"Oh Ranma, that is not often that you use the phone. And have you succeeded?" Ranma could hear a faint hope in her voice, despite Nabiki's cool character. You better not ask why…

The disappointment still weighed heavily on the shoulders of the red-haired girl, and couldn't suppress a sigh. "No Nabiki, I failed. The cure is beyond my reach now, thanks to the betrayal of Ryoga and Mousse. They have destroyed my only ticket for a cure and ran away, afraid of Herb."

"WHAT!" Nabiki was shocked. "You are sure?"

"Herb was an eyewitness. He was so nice to let me live after he used me like a punch bag, or sort of," replied Ranma bitterly. "Given my current situation, I think its better that I wander around until I get my thoughts straight about this situation. Bye Nabiki, I hope that Akane will not take this news too hard…"

She hung up quickly before Nabiki could ask more questions. Then she started with the number of the Cat Café. An old voice answered the phone.

"Hello, the Cat Café, this is Cologne, how can I help you?"

"Hello granny, it's me, Ranma," said the red-haired girl.

"Ah, son in law, you sound very tired. I assume that it was a big fight," Cologne asked sincerely.

"Yeah, it was a tough fight, but a fight all for nothing. Ryoga and Mousse have betrayed me, and destroyed the magic stuff. It's a miracle that Herb left me alive…"

And so Ranma explained in more detail what happened.

It was a brief moment very silent on the phone, and a sad voice of Cologne said: "I'm sorry to hear this… child. It must be very hard for you. It is good that you contacted me. This act can not, and will not remain unpunished."

"Granny, sorry about this, if things had been different, then I would have a chance to get myself back to normal."

"Child, don't worry too much. Come home, maybe we can find a solution for your locked curse," said Cologne calmly.

"Not yet. I want just to be alone… but this is not goodbye. Granny give Shampoo some greetings okay? Bye…"

With one click, she put the horn on the hook, and left the payphone. She stared into the air and she shuddered in the cold autumn wind. She was glad that it was Nabiki that had been on the phone. She had no idea how to explain her situation to Akane, you never knew how she would react. Mr. Tendo or her father would probably break out in a very emotional rant, feh, and they call themselves man. And Kasumi? She could only guess.

**o000o**

Cologne hung up the phone calmly, but inside her old body, she was a mass of anger. The fact that Mousse was responsible for the loss of two important artefacts and also sealed Ranma's fate with it, made her really mad.

She counted herself lucky that Shampoo wasn't present at this time. That gave her some time to calm down and to find a way to tell the bad news gently to Shampoo without the risk that her great-grandchild would wring the neck of Mousse in his duck form. But somehow, she couldn't suppress the desire for a huge chunk of Peking Duck meat.

**o000o**

From out of the living room, four pairs of eyes were looking expectantly to Nabiki who shook her head slowly and put the phone down. She sighed before she entered the living room. Kasumi was looking a little concerned. Akane and the two fathers, Genma and Soun were nervous.

"Is all well with Ranma?" Akane asked.

Nabiki wondered how she had to break the news. Not that she really gave a darn about Ranma, but the fact that Akane would be deeply saddened with this.

"No," replied the middle Tendo girl eventually. "His so-called friends have betrayed him. Ranma is forever stuck as a girl now. "

"WHAT!" The combined voice of four people was simultaneous heard.

Akane jumped up, her face was shocked. "I don't believe it! I can't believe that Mousse and Ryoga would betray him. Especially Ryoga, it must be a mistake!"

The rest was too stunned to react. They wanted to accept the possibility that Ranma would not succeed because Herb was too strong… but treason?

The middle Tendo girl shrugged and took place at the table and took a sip of her tea. Akane bent over to Nabiki, while she put her hands on the table.

"Nabiki!" Akane hissed, waiting for an explanation.

"Sister," Nabiki said while she calmly looked up at the girl with short blue-black hair. "Ranma simply told me the truth, and if he would lie, then I would know."

Akane could still not believe it, and left without a word the living room. The Tendo and Saotome patriarchs were remarkably quiet. Treason, who would have thought?

**o000o**

**The next day **

The young red-haired martial artist trudged slowly forwards on a path in a forest. It was not difficult to understand that her always optimistic attitude was gone, and was changed into depression. It was the truth; Ranma had a few low points in his life, but always managed to crawl up again in his life. But now he was no longer a man, Ranma had lost his identity. Try to explain to somebody that he was a boy, a man. A boy from birth, but thanks to a Jusenkyo curse and a magical bucket, Ranma was forever a girl now.

Ranma began to doubt, if she still wanted to go home. It was like she lacked the strength to face her new future problems. The school, her mother… And don't forget the promise between the Tendo's and Saotome's. Soun Tendo's offer was not forgotten. She shuddered at the thought and stopped abruptly.

"Forget it! No way that I marry a man, and absolutely not Soun!" she angrily cried.

She kicked frustrated against a little stone which such power, that it not far from her buried itself deeply in the trunk of a big tree. The silence that followed, however, was soon broken by a laughing old creaking voice.

"Hohoho… So young and yet so much trouble?"

Ranma stopped and frowned while she looked to the direction were she heard the voice. She was surprised to see an old man, who was dressed in a grey dogi. He was bald and had a long white beard. But the most notable was the enormous painting brush that he held in his right hand, supported on his right shoulder.

"I don't want to be unfriendly, but have you something to eat for a hungry old man? It was days ago that I had something to eat and I'm so hungry to the point of collapsing," he said quickly.

The red-haired girl looked at him for a moment. For an old man almost on the point of collapsing, he was remarkably very lively. But who was she to judge him, and finally nodded.

While the old man began to eat a lot of instant noodles he told Ranma, that he was a master of the Kimen Martial Arts School, Calligraphy. It sounded vaguely familiar in Ranma's ears, but she was not very interested. Understandable, since she had something else to think about it.

She began to pack her things, when the old man was satisfied. "You really are depressed, aren't you? Is an arranged marriage really so terrible? "

"I am not interested in a marriage… just because a stupid promise between idiots. Something has happened and now it will probably switched to a man with the age difference so big that I could be his freaking daughter. But that is still nothing compared with the seppuku promise that my old man made with my mother."

The old man showed a painful face. "I see… your life is a cruel play-ball of fate."

Ranma sighed deeply. "I don't believe in fate, I refuse to believe in something that takes the choice of the people away. But I know that my life is one big mess… thanks to my old man. Sometimes I wish that I really could flee from my problems…"

She took her backpack and wanted to leave, when the old man made a stop gesture with his right hand.

"Wait young lady, I didn't pay you for your kindness…"

The red-haired girl frowned. It began to look like a very familiar story of Ryoga. "Let me guess, you want to give me a stupid tattoo, such as the 'symbol of the fighting god'? No thanks, I don't feel the need to look like a clown, although I would unbeatable."

The old man was astounded because she knew of the ultimate mark. He quickly waved his hands. "No… no, you insult me young girl. Something like that isn't for ladies. The only thing I would to give you is a way to fulfil your deepest desire. It sounds unlikely, but you're the perfect candidate for a very special tattoo."

Ranma tilted her head a little and looked at him with curiosity. "And how can you do that with a calligraphy technique? I don't feel the need for extra power, or whatever that junk can do… Power is not a solution for my problems…"

"You underestimate the Kimen Martial Arts School, girl," he said a little offended, while he took a strange little pot with gold paint from behind his grey dogi. "I studied your aura, and it is powerful but laced with chaos, and combined with latent magic. That is why you have such a difficult life. But it is also perfect for a Gold mark! It will disconnect you from reality; you will no longer be bound by the rules."

"Huh?"

The red-haired girl had no idea what the old man was talking about. The old master was already stirring with a brush in the little golden pot.

"Pull your hair up, uncover your head. I will put the tattoo on your forehead."

Ranma did what the old man asked, but why she obeyed, that was a mystery to her. The master made a few quick brush strokes at the centre of her forehead, and Ranma felt that the paint began to pull in her skin; she could almost swear that she could even feel the paint on her skull. She swallowed and wondered if it was smart thing to let the old man do as he wished.

The now grinning old man held a mirror for her face; don't ask from where it came. A bit surprised Ranma stared to her reflection. A golden triangle, like an upside down pyramid was painted in the middle of her forehead. It didn't make her ugly, but it was really strange; it was something that a 'Magical Girl' would like. Ranma frowned because of this thought.

"From old stories, only the kami's have these kind of symbols, but they have also a mark at each corner of their eyes. The tattoo on your forehead is enough for your wish to flee. You activate this tattoo with your Ki, just concentrate on you forehead. But I give you a warning! Never forget your place, your home, or you will be lost forever. That's all what I have to say. Young lady, I wish you good luck."

A little dazed, Ranma waved to the old master who after a quick greeting took the opposite direction of the path and quickly disappeared.

With a serious face, the red-haired girl rubbed on her head and thought about the words of the old master.

"I hope that the old man said the truth, otherwise I be walking around with a ridiculous triangle on my forehead," she mumbled while she shook her head.

Gently she felt on her new tattoo and noticed that she could literally feel it, like it was a part of her head. Of course she was curious what her new golden tattoo could do. As the old master had explained she began to focus her Ki…

**o000o**

**Somewhere, another time, another place**

A fierce battle was going on between two aliens. It was a man with strange stripe tattoos on his cheeks, dressed in a strange battle garb. He fought against a space pirate, a young woman with wild long cyan hair, clothed in a tight space suit. It was an aggressive and wild battle. Both were armed with an energy sword and the young woman seemed to get the upperhand. She looked almost like a demon with her bright red eyes, and she fought like a madman… or better said, mad woman. It was something that was probably almost the truth.

_"Her energy,"_ Yosho gasped, while he deflected an attack. _"I am sure that she has all her energy somewhere else! It's not natural…" _

He began to realize that three glowing things must be her energy source. There was one in each of her wrists and in her neck. Three highlighted energy bulbs, three stones, with enough energy to cause a lot of devastation.

Unfortunately, he was so fixed on a solution that his defence weakened. An explosion with an energy ball made him fly meters through the air, and he smacked hard against the ground. Unfortunately he lost the Tenchi, his sword. He groaned, and tried to crawl out of his self-created crater. His heart missed a beat when the space pirate Ryoko began to attack again.

"It's over!" Ryoko hissed triumphantly, while she prepared her energy sword for the final blow.

Suddenly Yosho's eyes grew big, but not because of Ryoko. Behind her back out of nowhere appeared, a red-haired girl. And as she appeared, she had her arm already in attack.

"KIYAAAAA!" Her battle cry was heard while the redhead gave Ryoko a powerful chop to her neck.

The space pirate had no time to react and fell unconscious on the ground.

A second later, the redhead bent over and began to throw up with a lot of noise… A sudden nausea had her overwhelmed.

"That was a bit anti-climatic…" a shocked Yosho mumbled when he began to realize what exactly had happened.

_To be continued…_


	2. Yosho Masaki

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma Half or Tenchi Muyo. I just write for fun and for free.

Note: I felt that the interaction with Yosho in the second chapter was too short, even if it was thirteen pages. So I wrote a whole new part for it, and created a whole new chapter for it. Still, it's too short for my taste… But I hope you still like it.

- 08/19/2009 - Beta done by Deathgeonous

**Chapter 2 - Yosho Masaki**

______________________________________

"Oh man, I feel sick," Ranma muttered while she washed away the dirty taste in her mouth. At that moment she was still sitting on the ground.

A few seconds ago, Yosho silently offered a water bottle to the girl, which she thankfully accepted.

Meanwhile, Yosho removed the three energy stones from Ryoko and put the items to his energy sword, the Tenchi. Then he tied Ryoko with a few strange energy bands.

The red-haired girl was slowly feeling better.

"Man, this new technique really makes me sick." Then she looked up to Yosho, who looked strangely at her. Ranma scratched behind her head and grinned sheepishly. "Um... my name is... Ranma… Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."

"Yosho Masaki, Prince of Jurai," replied the man after a brief hesitation. He was surprised that she talked to him in his native 'alien' language. "You saved my life, Miss Saotome. I am in your debt," he said while he made a short bow.

He could only guess who this girl was. He didn't recognize the foreign clothing; she wore a red silky shirt and black trousers, and the shoes were a kind of black slippers. Interestingly, however, was her attitude, just like a boy. And then her strikingly red hair that she held in a pigtail.

The prince felt a strong life-energy in her and she was undoubtedly a skilled warrior. To win over Ryoko, even with a simple blow to her neck that would surely mean a lot. But what fascinated the prince, was her sudden appearance and especially the golden triangle on her forehead. He had seen it; despite it was mostly hidden behind her hair. He was also unsure if she had connections with Jurai.

The red-haired pigtailed girl felt uncomfortable under the penetrating gaze of the prince. _"Man, not again, another prince. And just where's Jurai? And where on earth am I?"  
_  
"Um, just cut the formalities... call me Ranma... eh, mister Masaki," she said nervous, while she pulled on her pigtail.

A smile appeared on Yosho's face. The strange black haired prince looked good, Ranma had to admit that. Herb radiated arrogance and power, while he seems quite the opposite, he was friendly and polite.

"You're not from the local population, is that correct?" Yosho asked curiously.

The red haired girl had no idea how she had to explain this situation. Actually she had not even an idea how she had done it.

When she activated her golden mark there was a reaction. Images began to flash in her head. And since she had no clear goal in mind, it was as if she was watching a television, zapping from one to another channel. There were images from all kinds of foreign places that she had never seen. But when she finally got some control over it, and got an image to concentrate on it, she became aware that she was a spectator of the fight between the two people. At a glance Ranma had seen what the cyan-haired woman wanted to do. And so, it was more a reflex when Ranma made the jump. She could not even believe it, what just had happened.

And now she was here in a strange place, and she had no idea where she was.

"Well, um, yes," replied Ranma finally, while she unconsciously felt on her forehead. "I saw your fight eh, from afar, and you saw what happened," she mumbled softly.

"A teleportation?" Yosho asked interested.

Ranma sighed and stood up. "Yeah, it was something like that, yes. By the way, what do you actually want to do with the freaky girl?"

The prince of Jurai began to laugh. "This 'freaky girl' is nothing more than Ryoko, the most feared space pirate from the galaxy."

_"Space Pirate... space beings?"_ Ranma thought surprised, _"Okay... if you think you've seen everything..."  
_  
"Um yeah, then it's high time that she be locked up," Ranma said nodding. "Is there no police or something like that..."

A strange twinkle appeared in the eyes of Yosho, when he heard Ranma's reaction.

The prince began to grin. "I should indeed have to deliver her to the space police, but I have other plans. Anyway, I think I prefer to stay in this place... It is a beautiful green area, and the people are simple farmers. From these people I have nothing to fear."

The red-haired girl raised an eyebrow. "Simple farmers? What is this place?"

The question remained not long unanswered. The two were distracted by a group of people that appeared, armed with sticks, bows and spears. They came slowly and carefully from the nearby forest.

"What are they?" one asked, surprised. "Youkai?"

"I don't know, but I saw them fight from afar. The blue-haired woman was very powerful, very dangerous," said another.

"Wow... they speak an old dialect," Ranma noticed, amazed at the fact that she understands them perfectly and even noticed the difference. But then she began to realize, that all this time she spoke to Yosho in a foreign language. How was that possible? No doubt the strange golden triangle on her head had something to do with it.

"You can understand them?" Yosho asked surprised.

Ranma nodded uncertain, while she began to study the people. The people were dressed old-fashioned and were indeed simple farmers. It made her think of the pictures that she had seen in a history book.

The red haired girl drew a conclusion and her eyes grew big.

_"I have travelled through time!"_

**o000o**

Ranma couldn't know it, but she had made a time jump of 695 years, from 1987 back to 1292 in the Kamakura period. She was currently in the Okayama district, but the city itself would be founded in 1573 by Naoie Ukita, a local war lord, where he built a fort. These were tumultuous times, where the Mongols invaded Japan in 1274 and years later a failed invasion in 1281.

**o000o **

With a thud, Ranma fell on her knees. She had no intention to leave, but when she had tried to test the golden mark again, it failed. And whatever she tried to do, it didn't work. Was it beginners luck? Or must she wait a couple of days before she could use it again?

"What's wrong?" Yosho asked while he knelt down beside her.

"I don't know," she replied with a sigh. "But I think I can not leave, not until I know how to use my new gift."

"Ah, yes the way you appeared, the teleport," recalled the prince.

Ranma pulled on her pigtail. "Um, I think it was more than a teleport. This is not even my time! I came from the future ... heheheh..."

The prince from another planet looked at her, speechless.

The evening began to fall, and although some friendly people offered some shelter, Yosho politely told them that he would rather kept watch on Ryoko, than the risk that she would escape while they were in their village. Ranma worked as an interpreter between Yosho and the people.

Somewhat later Yosho began to set up a few spherical tents and Ranma was surprised how fast it was done, thanks to alien technology. He didn't even use a rope!

**o000o**

A few hours later the two sat at a campfire, drinking tea, while Ryoko was safely stored and put in an artificial coma.

Ranma stared to the prince, who was now dressed in the strange clothing style, typical of the people of Jurai. He had long thick black hair, that he simply held in a pony style. Remarkable also were his red-brown eyes and his gentle face.

"I don't understand why you don't want to return to Jurai," Ranma said a little surprised.

The prince sighed, and looked a bit sad to Ranma.

"My father wants me as the next successor of the throne. As king of Jurai you have great responsibility and many obligations. It's something I don't like. I will lose a lot of my freedom when I would accede to the throne."

The red-haired girl nodded silently, and took a sip of her teacup.

"But tell me Ranma; are you really from the future?" Yosho asked while he looked unsure at the redhead.

Ranma stared at the floor and she put slowly her teacup down.

"It sounds weird, but I'm really from the future. But don't ask how, for I have still no idea how I've made the time jump. I'm still learning…"

Yosho Masaki looked at her expectantly.

The red-haired girl shrugged. "I have recently received a strange gift from an old master, and I have not yet fully understood how it works," Ranma said, pointing to the golden triangle on her forehead.

"He said something about chaos-energy and with that triangle I was no longer bound by reality. In my first attempt I saw at the beginning a lot of strange images, and somewhat later I got some control. It was coincidence that I saw your fight, and I reacted in a reflex when I saw how the situation turned out. But how it's exactly done, that for me is still a mystery. But I have the feeling that it's not only bound with time travel... because I've seen really freaky things…"

Yosho was silent for a moment, while he stroked his chin and nodded.

"Fascinating," the Jurai prince said, and he took a sip of his tea. "Time Travel, the concept is not impossible, but there is usually much more involved than a simple tattoo. There are many theories about it. But I warn you Ranma. You must not think too lightly about your new gift. It may be that your presence here is part of the timeline, but it may also be that you just have changed the timeline; you might even cause a paradox. But it may also be that this is not even your timeline, but an alternate dimension."

"Ugh." Ranma rubbed her head and was almost dazed with all this information. This stuff began to look too much like what she learned in school.

The prince grinned. "But maybe it is better not to think too much about it. But I feel that your gift isn't only for time travelling. It would be a particular idea, for example, if you could teleport from place to place with your gift, or even from planet to planet…"

A strange glint appeared in the eyes of the redhead when she began to think about it. Not bounded by reality indeed means more… much more.

Yosho nodded. "Think about it, teleporting from planet to planet. It would even make space travel unnecessary. Ah yes, space travel. Unfortunately I have sealed my fate now. I have planted Funaho in the soil of this planet. The tree will lose its strength. Since my life is connected with Funaho, I will likely age as any other person on this planet and die."

Ranma looked upset at the prince of Jurai. "Why was that needed for? Why the possibility of a long life, throwing it away," she cried, appalled.

"I rather prefer to die as a free man, than a life in a golden cage," Yosho simply replied.

Ranma nodded silently. Somehow she could understand why Yosho made this choice.

"But despite my choice, I still have a life debt with you Ranma. But, I can't offer much then my sword art, the sword art of our royal family of Jurai."

The red-haired girl was surprised when the prince made this offer. While Ranma preferred a hand to hand fight, she wasn't unfamiliar with weapons. She was trained in a few of them. But it really was a great opportunity to learn an extraterrestrial fighting style. No doubt it would a great addition to her fighting style, the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu.

She nodded and agreed hungrily. It would certainly be a whole new experience.

**o000o**

**On Mount Horai, in the year 1987.**

Two people were standing, where Ranma was last seen.

"Tell me Ryoga," Mousse asked while he fumbled with his glasses, "tell me, why you chose to run instead to fight?"

Ryoga gritted his teeth and made a fist. "I did not run away! I wanted to withdraw, temporarily! Do you think we had a chance against both of them when they would have turned against us? You saw how strong Herb was! I wanted to wait until one of the two was eliminated. If Ranma had still won, than he would be easy prey for us…"

"Bah, it wasn't a bad idea, but I can't still believe that I followed you like an idiot, and was lost, again! Now we are too late, and it seems that Ranma is still alive, or at least, his belongings are gone."

For a brief moment it was quiet between the two, but then a determined look appeared in the eyes of mousse.

"There is only one solution," concluded the nearsighted boy.

"And that is?" Ryoga looked doubtfully at his partner in crime.

"We must find Ranma before he goes home."

Ryoga nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, hopefully we find him before it is too late." He began to regret the plan that they had made. It was that strange feeling in his stomach, the feeling that they were doomed…

**o000o**

**A few days later in the year 1292.**

Ranma woke up from the sound of people. She blinked with her eyes, when she looked up to the white interior of the tent. It was made of unknown materials, but that was something that held no interest for Ranma. She stretched out, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and then she crawled out of her sleeping bag and left the tent.

"Oh boy, what a lot of people…" She mumbled when she saw a lot of activity on the site.

To her amazement she saw the prince give instructions to a group of people, probably farmers, and pointed to a rock formation. Ranma was still more surprised at the fact that he spoke in their language.

"What the… How did he learn a new language so quickly?" Ranma asked in surprise, while she began to walk. It was very ironic, especially since foreign languages were no longer a problem for Ranma, thanks to her new gift.

"Hey, mister Masaki, what is the big idea here?" she cried to the prince, not aware that she spoke in the Juraian language.

The group looked at her strangely, and Ranma stopped, uncertain why they give her that strange look, until she began to understand. Yosho was faster, and responded with a smile while he made a gesture to come.

"Good morning, Ranma," he greeted her in the language that everybody could understand. He introduced her to the men. "This is Ranma Saotome, and she's… a guest of mine. I wish that you give her the same respect. It's thanks to her that I finally could defeat Ryoko."

Looks of amazement appeared in the faces of the farmers. At first sight she didn't look very impressive. She might be noticeably dressed in a red silky blouse and black trousers, but in the eyes of the men, she was just a girl. However, she didn't look like a normal girl with her remarkable blue eyes, her red hair and the strange golden symbol that she had on her forehead. The first thought that came up, was that she was the wife of this man, but that changed when Yosho told them that she was a guest. But they understood that she was special, probably the daughter of a lord. In their eyes she couldn't be a simple commoner, how ironic...

Yosho resumed with his instructions and when the men nodded in understanding, they all went to work.

"But seriously, what is going on here?" Ranma asked curious.

The prince rubbed on his chin. "The farmers were hospitable enough to offer their help to build a prison for Ryoko. When they heard that I was planning to guard this criminal, they also decided to build a home for me…"

The red-haired girl raised an eyebrow. "All free and for nothing?"

Yosho shook his head. "I will pay them in materials, gold, metal and promised my help with certain problems."

"Ah." Ranma nodded, while she saw that most people walked to a place with a cave.

"I scouted this area and found a cave that was a perfect place to lock Ryoko up. I gave the builders some instructions how to prepare the cave," the prince explained further.

They both walked to the place, where about ten men were at work. The cave was very simple, but there were quite a lot of stones and small rocks at the entrance. Everybody was hard at work to free the path.

Ranma sighed inwardly when she saw how much trouble they had with the stones. Her hands began to itch and she looked at Yosho.

"Where are they dumping all that junk?" Ranma asked at the Jurai prince.

The prince pointed to a place where a little cairn was. The heap of stones would slowly grow, and would be used as building material.

The red-haired girl nodded and walked to two men, already sweating, trying to move a big stone.

"Oi, if you deal with the small fry, I will take care of these big things, okay?" She began to crack her hands. It was more a command than a request, but the men began to laugh hard.

It was indeed difficult to imagine, since Ranma was not very impressive at her one meter fifty. The redhead ignored their laughing and went into action. The laughing stopped and their eyes grew when they saw how she smoothly lifted the stone, the one that the two men just moved a little with a lot of trouble!

Disbelief was to see in their eyes, when they saw how strong Ranma really was. Soon they were eyewitnesses, how fast the red-haired girl could work. Large rocks were broken with a karate kick, medium stones flew through the air and fell neatly on the cairn, and occasionally she ran back and forth with a boulder.

Yosho couldn't suppress a whistle of amazement and the ten men stared incredulous at her with open mouth.

Ranma stopped and put a hand on her hip while she glared at them. "Oi, why are you looking like an idiot!? Come on, go work, rather than catching flies with your mouth!"

Heads shaking, the shocked ten men resumed their work, while everybody began to mumble. It seems that the job wouldn't take too much time…

The people were really surprised that Ranma was so strong, that was certainly a shocking experience. Everybody whispered strange things about her, judging from her superhuman strength and the strange symbol on her forehead.

The truth was that at that time many in Japan still didn't really know what martial arts was. The samurai was the most important element for the defence during the turbulent years. It was in the Nara Period, the years between 710 and 794 that they began to use a primitive sword. Sumo wrestling and Daito Ryu jujitsu (which was heavily influenced by Aikido), were developed between 794 and 1185.

It was in these times, that Yosho Masaki crashed on Earth and made contact with the people. His first meeting with Ranma, was it coincidence?

_To be continued..._

**o000o**


	3. The apple never falls far from the tree

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma Half or Tenchi Muyo. I just write for fun and for free.

Note: Yeah, at last a new chapter. Be warned, this is done without a beta reader. I'm looking for beta reader but you must know that I'm very slow. I do not have much free time and I write only when I have inspiration… then two weeks writing and than translating to English… which also took two weeks. Have to put some old work together for my next one. I hope you like this chapter… and don't take this story too seriously! ;)

Corrected some mistakes with learning and teaching. It seems that I oversaw it while translating. Some words in Dutch are almost the same... thanks Kaiya Eri Ishikawa and Dragon Man 180

08/19/2009 - Beta done by Deathgeonous

**Chapter 3 – The apple never falls far from the tree. **

______________________________________

The eternal blackness of space… Ranma blinked with her eyes and stared to the strange glittering stars. Surprised she looked around when she noticed that she floated in space, but it was also a shock for her when she noticed that her hands were transparent. It was not only her hands, but her whole body was transparent. Her red hair and her clothes seemed to move with an unnoticeable wind.

But the last thing she could recall was that she was asleep. Was this a dream?

When she looked at her feet, she saw an earth-like planet beneath her, with the typical beautiful blue sparkling white colours; but she couldn't recognize the strange continents. It was also remarkable greener than the Earth. The scenery began to fade into blackness...

**o000o**

Ranma opened her eyes and stared to the wooden roof of a hut. Currently, she was a guest in a village. Now that Ryoko was put in 'jail', she and Yosho had time to visit the neighbourhood village. It was a warm night and she wiped the sweat away from her head, unaware that her golden tattoo was glowing a few seconds ago.

"That was strange," muttered the red-haired girl. "Is the tattoo working again? I hope so, one week has already past."

She pulled the sheets off her and stood up, and walked outside, while she massaged the temples of her head.

"I just wonder what that was. I saw not only the space... I was in space, floating above an unknown planet, as a ghost or something like that…"

It was early in the morning and the sun was not up yet. Ranma rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked up to the sky with the stars still visible. Her thoughts were still with the strange dream. Travelling through space, who would have ever thought? For many people space was no longer a dream but reality. Centuries before men put a foot on the moon, the planet Earth had already visitors from space, and apparently some alien people have settled here on Earth before, like Yosho was planning now.

However, one thought remained. She had been brooding a whole week about one question. She did not believe in fate, but didn't the possibility of time travel mean that everything was already set in stone? How flexible was time? But why she began to suspect that her presence here affected everything for the future, even though it seemed that the Jurai prince wasn't really worried about it.

She was getting a headache at the thought alone and decided to stop with this head breaking dilemma. But time travelling has great possibilities. Currently she was stuck in her girl form, but that was only a matter of time before the problem with the magic kettle was solved. A hopeful smile appeared on her face…

**o000o **

Ranma shivered a bit when she began to wade in the cold river. It was not far from the village, but it was really annoying that the nearest hot spring was miles away in the north. Too bad, there was nothing else, and a hot bath was a luxury for people at that time.

Luxury... While Ranma was accustomed with living without luxury, she had to admit that she missed these things. Internally she was laughing at the thought how the Jurai prince had to live with it. He was here on Earth, but that would mean a lot of sacrifice from his side.

But besides that, she needed to get used to the idea that the prince was an alien. She began to realize how big the difference between the cultures was. Take for example the construction techniques. On his instructions, the tunnel in the cave was made much deeper. When everybody was gone, she and Yosho added a strange system in the tunnel and the result was really not of this world. It was done fairly fast thanks to the foreign technical resources that he used.

Her train of thoughts were broken when she was distracted by approaching voices of women. The red-haired girl sighed. This was indeed the favourite bathing place where the women of the village came every morning. Ranma had hoped to get a little privacy when she came a little earlier.

Before Ranma had the chance to come out of the water, a few women of the village, young and old already arrived, and everybody looked a bit surprised to Ranma.

"Ah, our redheaded guest is an early bird," a friendly older black-haired woman noted with a nod.

"Gah..." Ranma began to blush, especially when some began to undress and walked naked into the river.

"And very shy, isn't she?" noted one of them, while others began to giggle.

One of the older women grabbed Ranma's red silk blouse before the redhead could protest. The old women looked curious at the fabric. "So soft and shiny. Is this the silk that I heard about it? It must be worth a lot!"

Ranma's black kung fu trouser was also inspected. "The sewing is unbelievable, just like the blouse. Who made this? And why do you have pants? You like to dress like a man?"

The red-haired girl did not know what to say. She could hardly tell that she bought it in a clothing store somewhere in China. And concerning her choice of clothing, she couldn't tell them that she was a boy, or better said former boy… stupid curse…

The most of them however, kept a distance from her, it was like a form of respect, and Ranma could see it in their eyes. But it was also as if they were afraid of something. However not everybody was scared. A twenty year old bold girl came to Ranma and she looked at her with curiosity. Red hair and blue eyes were not something that was normal for them, but for the rest, she was clearly Japanese.

"Is it true that you are strong as one hundred men? I heard the men tell strange stories about you. You can do a job in one day that normally would take a week to do?"

The red haired girl nodded silently, while she was having some trouble to get used to her new situation. It was like a déjà vu for her, since this was the second time that she was in a sort like situation. The first time she could still remember. It was when she along with her father Genma and Soun Tendo were hunting for the stupid 'fireworks' technique scroll of Happosai, the so called terrible technique. The old pervert hid it in a hot spring, a hot spring that years later turned out a place that was only reserved for women. But there was a difference now; Ranma was a girl, permanent. However that didn't change the fact that she still felt not at all at ease with all these women…

"Really? That was no exaggeration?" the girl cried surprised, and then she looked sceptical. "But where are your muscles? I would have expected a giant of a woman with all those stories..." She looked at her forehead, where she could see her golden tattoo. "Is it maybe because your golden sign on your forehead?" she asked curious.

The idea was bizarre for Ranma. She could recall a battle of the tournament where Shampoo participated in, and fought a gorilla woman...? A moment later she began to laugh hard.

The morning seemed less tense now when she began to laugh and everyone seemed more at ease now.

After her laughing she shook her head. "No heheh, that tattoo is for something special... it's hard to explain… I got it as a gift from an old calligraphy master."

The girl just nodded and resumed her bath.

The same old friendly woman that greeted her first, sat down at the waterfront. But then she looked up and stared strangely at Ranma. After a quiet moment she asked her a strange question.

"Hmmm, are you the wife of Masaki-san?"

The mouth of the surprised red-haired girl dropped open, but closed it quickly and shook her head fast. "No, just a friend... I think."

The old woman raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Oh, it's not a big problem child, but there are a number of rumours running around in the village."

_"I hope that it doesn't give some serious troubles, since the news is spreading so quickly through the area,"_ she mumbled softly.

Ranma frowned and began to shiver while she watched the mumbling old woman. She hated rumours… The water felt colder than it really was and she decided that she had finished her bath.

**o000o**

The Jurai prince and Ranma wore a simple white dogi today. Yosho held two wooden swords, a bokken, in his hands and he threw one bokken to Ranma, which the redhead easily caught.

The red-haired girl looked to Yosho. "So, today is finally my first lesson?" she said with a smile.

They picked an open spot in the woods, far away from the village. She knew that Yosho didn't want the people around, some things just needed to be a secret.

Yosho nodded seriously. "Before you will learn all these things, I will first need your oath. This is really important! I want you to swear that you will never teach this swordsmanship to anyone else, other than the members of my family. What I do now is an exception, and believe me, this is a very great honour, and it is only because I trust you! This is my repayment for my life debt to you."

The red-haired girl could almost feel the heavy weight that Yosho put in those words. Ranma nodded and frowned now. "I, Ranma Saotome swear this as a martial artist. I will never teach this to anybody, other than to your family alone…"

The prince looked Ranma directly in the eyes and saw that she understood what the consequences were when she broke that oath. It couldn't be otherwise, because Yosho knew that she as a martial artist had knowledge of a lot deadly techniques maybe even techniques that are banned. With a brief nod, he accepted her answer and began to smile.

"Okay, but first let me see what you can do," he said and made a gesture to begin with the attack.

With a serious face Ranma took a kendo stance and held her bokken in the attack position and then she began…

Yosho wasn't surprised that the red-haired girl knew how to handle a sword, and blocked her first slash which Ranma immediately following with the next move.

After a minute they stopped with the exercise and Yosho nodded approvingly. The redhead was surprised that the prince could maintain her speed easily and she could clearly see that he was a master with the sword. At this moment she couldn't break his defence.

"Well, it seems that you can handle a sword which saves us a lot of time. Now I will show you the basics of my style…"

**o000o**

Somewhere in a camp, a big rugged black-haired bearded man was checking his weapons in his tent.

Michio Hibiki was once a samurai, but since he had lost his master in a battle and refused to commit seppuku, he decided to seek his fortune elsewhere as a bandit. He didn't have a nice personality, but he was very strong, and managed to work himself up as a gang leader.

So, what more could wish a gang leader for...? His gaze went to his empty futon and he frowned. His men were laughing behind his back since he had no luck with women. But he had heard that there was a beautiful woman somewhere in the mountains not far from where he lived, and he had plans to 'honour' her with a visit. And if she was really as beautiful as in the said rumours then he will take her as his wife, simple as that. The strange stories that went around that she were a witch that was just bullshit. Feh, a witch, what a joke...

His thoughts were interrupted when somebody outside called him.

"Michio, boss, I have news for you, you certainly would like this," someone called at the entrance of his tent.

A skinny man with a stubble beard sniggered when Michio looked at him and the gang leader wondered what the reason was for that reaction. He came out of his tent and frowned.

"Tell me, what is it!"

The skinny man scratched on his chin and got a thoughtful look in his eyes. "In a village not far from here are two guests, a man, probably an important one, and a girl. I saw her; she is a beautiful exotic redheaded girl. She has even blue eyes, something you hear about the stories from overseas…"

Michio looked surprised and then grinned. "Is she his girl?"

The man shook his head. "So far I know she is free, not that it matters, but a little strange if you would ask me. If the greedy land agent of this district would hear about her, she will certainly catch his interest."

"Saddle the horses. I think we will 'honour' the village with our visit," replied Michio and began to laugh hard. "I want to see her. With a little luck, we will for the evening have a new guest in our midst. Warn the others."

With a brief nod, the skinny man ran from the tent. With a few strong steps, Michio left his tent and began with his preparations. With a little luck he would share his bed with a girl, his wife. He drooled at the thought... and quickly wiped his mouth clean with his sleeve.

**o000o**

**Tokyo - Nerima district, 1987.**

Cologne was busy in the kitchen of the café. Suddenly she looked up and took a glance through a small window to the sky. Her face frowned.

A strange white duck with glasses flew over the houses and then landed in an open area where two camping tents were standing. On a gas burner was a steaming kettle. A black-haired boy with a yellow-black bandana on his head took silently the kettle and poured warm water over the white duck. The duck transformed immediately into a longhaired Chinese young man, dressed in long white Chinese clothing. The only thing that didn't changed, were his thick glasses.

"And?" Ryoga asked his partner in crime.

Mousse shook his head. "I looked everywhere, but I haven't spotted him yet."

The eternal lost boy sighed. After a week of waiting, Ranma still hasn't returned.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Ranma didn't show up," said the near-sighted Chinese Amazon shrugging. "He's permanently a girl, what future has he now? He can't marry any of the girls..."

Ryoga stared silently to the ground. There was something that he didn't like one bit, and the bad gut feeling still hasn't disappeared. Mousse tried to convince Ryoga that it was okay, for a long time now. They did it for the sake of Shampoo and Akane, he said. That it was necessary to finish their 'work'.

"No, indeed, what hope has he..." Ryoga muttered and shook his head. "But this is Ranma we are talking about."

The near-sighted Chinese Amazon fumbled with his glasses and looked strangely to Ryoga. "You think he is... looking for a way to break the lock of his curse?"

"Probably," replied Ryoga. "We should have known. He's not someone who will just give up."

With a thud, Mousse fell on his backside and sighed. "So he could be everywhere and anywhere now!"

The Chinese Amazon seemed for a moment lost, but then he snapped with his fingers. "Ryoga, I think we took this the wrong way. It is so much simpler..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ryoga asked.

"It's simple, really simple," Mousse replied, "I just follow you. You seem to have that strange kind of luck to find him at least."

"Hmm, I don't know..." The lost boy scratched behind his head.

"I think you have to worry about yourselves soon, when I'm finished with you both," said a familiar old voice suddenly behind them.

They turned quickly around, and the person that they saw was someone they both knew that this was the last person that they really wanted to meet. Cologne, who as usual balanced on her old staff, stared straight in their eyes.

"Old Ghoul!" hissed Mousse. This was something he hadn't counted on. Ryoga took a step back and took a defensive stance.

"You fools had never thought about the fact that Ranma could easily use a phone. Almost everyone here knows now what you stupid fools have done," Cologne said with a tired voice, sighing. She could only shake her head and almost hated what she had to do.

"The... p… phone?" Ryoga stammered, and he wished at that moment that he could ram his head against a wall, a very hard stone wall… Of all the things, Ranma simply used the telephone…

"How could I overlook something simple as that," Mousse mumbled aghast. He knew that he didn't have a chance against the old 'witch', and now that everybody already knew the truth... Their plan had failed, and it had turned into a nightmare. Shampoo would probably hate him forever now...

Cologne hopped off her staff and stared to the two idiots with a frown. "I have thought long about an appropriate punishment, you both will not escape retribution!"

With a fast move she used her old staff and before the two boys could react, each boy was hit with a poke on their chest.

Ryoga looked surprised, but Mousse seemed to realize what Cologne had done. "Old Ghoul, that was the..."

"The full-body cat tongue shiatsu," Cologne answered with a short nod. "Now even lukewarm water will scald you. You have to find the cure yourself, if you can ever find it, but you will not get it from me. I had the last one and I used it for Ranma, and it was even a pointless waste."

"But... but I did it for Shampoo! Don't you understand it Old Ghoul!? I did it for Shampoo! She would finally be free of that Casanova!" Mousse cried angrily.

Cologne held her hand up and shook her head.

"Mousse, that's a lie and you know it. You and Ryoga did it only for yourself! And Mouse, I give you a warning! If you will ever show up in the café, I can assure you that we have roasted duck on the table for sure. And you, Ryoga, I had expected better of you, but that doesn't matter anymore… If I were you, well, you'd better avoid the Tendo's."

She looked grimly at the dark cloudy sky. "They said on television that it will rain today." Without a saying word further, Cologne hopped on her staff and jumped on the road while it started to pour.

A white duck and a small black pig stared horror-struck at the disappearing figure.

**o000o**

**Year 1292, somewhere in an open field.**

"Heh, that was a great workout," Ranma sighed a bit tired but satisfied.

Yosho nodded and a faint smile appeared on his face.

They sat both on the ground while they took a swig from a flask. The training had been intense. The prince had increased the pace when he saw how quickly Ranma learned his sword style. He understood very quickly that she was a natural talent and he had no regret of his decision.

"It's time to return to the village," said Yosho, while he slowly stood up. "I wanted to settle some things in the village before we return to our place."

Ranma nodded and frowned. "Yeah, the village. Man, there really live some strange guys there. I swear, if one of those guys tries to kneel for me one more time then..."

The prince began to laugh loudly at the irony of the situation.

"What! What's so funny!? It's freaky; they think that I'm some kind of goddess or something, especially the guys. Lucky enough, most of them got it finally through their heads that I'm just a human, but the others are so stubborn!" Ranma growled while shaking a fist. One Kuno was enough for her, but the idea of a village full of Kuno's... that was too much. Only just the thought of that caused a cold shiver down Ranma's back.

"Yes, I know," said Yosho still half laughing. "I could just barely stop the men from building a temple in honour of us both."

The red-haired girl shook her head. "When I'm back home in my own century, I will check the history books, only to be sure, you can never know..."

"That seems a sensible thing to do, and if history needs a correction, honour me then with another visit 'oh goddess' Ranma."

The prince laughed while avoiding a swing of a bokken.

After a short walk, the two came back in the village. But Ranma and Yosho could still feel the respectful atmosphere when they came in the village. They could only sigh. Yosho wanted to keep in the beginning everything very simple, because the planet was still in a development phase. But the arrival of Ranma complicated the whole matter and the worst of all, she was an Earthling, so he couldn't really reprimand her for this. He could only hope for the best. But seeing the strange powers that Ranma had, he had the feeling that the Earthlings could grow in a very powerful race, given time.

Their attention was drawn by the sound of galloping horses and they began to frown when a farmer ran in panic.

"Bandits! A gang is approaching our village," cried the man.

"Oh no! What should we do!" another shouted.

Most of them began to run for safety, while other farmers began to search for their few weapons that they had.

Others turned to Ranma and Yosho. "Please! This gang has been pillaging the neighbouring villages for a while and they take our wives and daughters away! Please help us…" an old man begged.

For a moment, Ranma and Yosho looked silently at each other but then Yosho nodded.

"A thousand thanks," the old man cried and the rest got a hopeful look on their faces.

A few seconds later a large group of horseman in gallop came in the village. A large bearded man held his hand up as a stop sign when Ranma, Yosho and some farmers were surrounded.

The red-haired girl narrowed her eyes when she looked at the apparent leader. In one way or another, the man seemed familiar to her. But what was worse, the man had his eyes directly on her and she didn't like it one bit.

Michio, the chief bandit was delighted. It seems that luck was on his side today. He found his prey without any trouble; he didn't even need to look for her.

The information of the skinny underling was not a lie. Never in his life had he seen such a girl. The red hair and blue eyes were almost unnatural, and although she was a bit on the small side, she was very cute. She was dressed in a white dogi for men, but even that couldn't hide her nice figure.

Then his eyes moved to the other person and he frowned. The strange man had a confident look of a nobleman and given his appearance he knew that woman would follow him everywhere, something that got him a twitch in his eyebrows. He was wearing the same white dogi as the girl and when he saw the two wooden swords in his hands, he suspected that the two were training, but that wasn't important anymore... for her.

He pointed his naginata, his spear-like weapon, to the nobleman. "You there, is that your girl?"

Yosho raised an eyebrow and started to get a vague idea why this gang was here, since they haven't started with their raid, yet.

"And if I say that she's indeed with me?" the prince replied calmly.

Ranma looked fast to Yosho and frowned. "Hey," she hissed angry. What was the stupid Jurai prince thinking?

Yosho however, laid his hand on her shoulder and squeezed her a little; Ranma froze for a moment, and slowly she began to make a fist while her eyebrows began to twitch. Who did Yosho think that she was? Akane?

The chief bandit grinned only at his answer. "Then that is bad luck for you, because from this day on, she will be mine."

That was enough, and Ranma snapped. "Hey! I belong to nobody, do you hear!? Who do you think that you are!?" the redhead shouted angrily.

Michio began to smile. "Oh, a spunky girl, I really like that in a young woman, that will make it a good challenge."

"That's it, he's dead! I show him how spunky I really am!" the red-haired girl hissed.

Yosho seemed very calm in this situation and with a squeeze in Ranma's shoulder he wanted her to remember that she wasn't alone. However, Ranma slapped Yosho's hand of her shoulder and looked angrily at him. "Hands off, 'prince'."

A strange look appeared in Yosho's eyes. What he thought at that time was something that Ranma could only guess. After a short quiet moment, the Jurai prince directed his attention back to the chief bandit.

A few gang members seemed to be a bit disappointed when the chief demanded the girl for himself, but the will of the boss was law. But now that they were in this village...

"Boss, did you come here just for that girl? Now that we are here, why not raid the village?" asked one of them.

Ranma knew that she had to act quickly now, and the only weak link in this gang was of course the leader himself. She began to concentrate on her ki in her legs and jumped...

The chief bandit that for a little moment was distracted, reacted too late when he suddenly saw the attack coming from out the corner of his eye, and in that short moment he was surprised that it was the girl, and not the man that attacked him. But she was too fast for him to react.

The redhead's right feet found her target in Michio's bearded face and he was literally launched off his horse. With a dull thwack he came in a collision with one of the bandits. Ranma had killed two birds with one stone… almost.

Michio crawled up, still half dizzy. His fall was broken, but the other man under him was less fortunate and lies unconscious on the ground. It was the skinny one… he had broken a few bones, probably.

"Grrrr, okay, you're dead girl. Nobody makes a fool of Michio Hibiki and goes unpunished," cried the bearded man in rage and grabbed his naginata.

"Hibiki?" Ranma reacted surprised. "So that's why he was so familiar. Perhaps he's an ancestor of Ryoga?"

While Michio came running towards her like a mad bull, Ranma got a better look on his face. It was really a surprise that she could see an adult version of Ryoga, there was no mistake here that he was really a Hibiki.

The Jurai prince had moved away from Ranma, when he had decided not to interfere. He slowly began to gain more insight into the character of the red-haired girl. It was clear that the girl mostly fights alone. The fact that she completely ignored his presence was not a good sign. But the biggest problem was probably her temper, and it seems that she was too eager for a fight. She really was a tomboy. Sword lessons were okay, but the girl needed training, in a better strategy and something more, something that he will teach her very soon. Sometimes you need more than luck or some friends that will help you…

Almost everyone including the robbers were surprised how the red-haired girl simply danced around the attacks of Michio's weapon. The longer it took the more the bearded chieftain became frustrated.

"Stand still you coward!" he screamed with his eyes bloodshot filled with anger.

"Okay, as you wish!" Ranma responded, and at the moment that she stood still and Michio thought he had a chance, the girl's fist buried deep in his belly. With the hit all the air disappeared from his lungs and his eyes were bulging, and then a second later he flew ten meters backwards. It was an unbelievable sight to see how a 'little' girl launched the towering man away with only her fist.

"_Strong! How can she be so strong?"_ Michio couldn't believe it that she had him, once he felt the pain. How could he misjudge the girl, he that won many battles? He thought that it was a lucky shot when she kicked him off his horse, but he had ignored the power behind it. What should be a simple kidnapping, turned out in a complete humiliation! He was defeated by a girl... no wait! That wasn't a girl! She must be a monster in disguise! His thoughts stopped abruptly when the world went black before his eyes. It seems that Michio really had no luck with women...

"He may be strong as a Hibiki, but if this is all of what he's got..."

The red-haired girl wiped the imaginary dust from her shoulders and looked grinning to the rest of the men. The bandits looked first to their unconscious leader who lay on his back frothing and with white eyes on the ground and then back to the girl. A second later her hand shot out and plucked an arrow out of the air, an arrow that was meant for her.

"She's not normal!" one of the robbers cried nervously when he lowered his bow.

"She has a golden mark on her head!" another shouted.

As if that could explain everything, the bandits became afraid and cowards that they were, they started to flee on their horses. They even left their unconscious leader and the wounded one behind. A cheer sounded through the village...

Headshaking Yosho began to tie the ex-chief and the other unknown man. Ranma had a lot to learn when it comes to subtlety. It was better that they left the town as soon as possible. Not that he was concerned about her, but the bystanders...

The redhead crouched down beside Yosho and looked at the skinny man. "Hey, this man looks like Gosunkugi!"

Yosho raised an eyebrow and then shook his head again, sighing. The skinny one was lucky that he only had a broken arm, but nothing serious.

When the two left the village, they got even some supplies as a thank you and they promised to help ever when they could if the village was in trouble again.

It was much later that Ranma had heard from some visitors that a few days after his defeat Michio had escaped with the Gosunkugi look-alike, the skinny one with a stubble beard. More interesting was the rumour that goes around that he had picked up a curse. It seems that he had tried to abduct a witch, and she was so mad about it that she had cursed him.

After hearing this, Ranma could only shrug and smile. Michio was indeed the ancestor of Ryoga.

**o000o**

**Two months later.**

The hut had changed into a larger house, and the place was dedicated to the 'guard' Yosho, the watchman of Ryoko the ´demon´. The impact crater caused by the spacecraft Ryo-ohki was slowly filling up with water from a river and the spacecraft had disappeared to the bottom of the newly created lake.

Somewhere in an open area, two persons were training with the bokken. Yosho was wearing a traditional hakama, which was actually for a samurai, while Ranma wore a simple self-made grey karate dogi. How the Jurai prince got his hands on a hakama was a mystery, but since their old training clothes were worn-out through their intensive training they needed replacements. While Yosho got his own clothes, Ranma made her own karate dogi with some fabric that she got from the local people.

The prince had a little trouble to keep up with the pace of Ranma, but it wasn't something that he would say aloud. Strikes and blows were made and blocked and it seems that the defence of both persons were pretty strong.

The game ended when Ranma teleported behind Yosho and attacked him in the back. But as usual, the prince foresaw it and his bokken blocked the attack in his back with a strange move, not even turning around. Her teleportation technique was always announced with the glow of her golden triangle. It took the surprise away, especially for Yosho who had gained the most experience with Ryoko.

Yosho grinned, when the red-haired girl took a step back and pouted. Teleportation was something that Ranma learned a few weeks ago when she got more control over her gift. Short distances didn't have a strong effect on her and were very easily done. But the more extreme or dangerous versions, such as a leap through time, would probably made her sick and dizzy. But until then she wanted to wait with this, unsure if she could do the time jump correctly. She didn't want to risk it until she had completed her training with Yosho. But one thing was certain; she would discover more and more about her new gift in the future.

The pout changed into a smile and Ranma lowered her bokken. The Jurai prince was really a great trainings partner and it was almost a shame that she had to depart. The redhead was surprised with herself that she was staring at Yosho longer than necessary. She was even looking at him with strange feelings. Ranma blinked her eyes and turned her head away. It was not the first time that this happened, something that she thought as impossible!

The Jurai prince stopped with the lesson and nodded to Ranma. "You have grown better," he noted.

Ranma grinned and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "Well, you're an excellent teacher. Better than some people I know... They could learn a lot from you, heh."

The Jurai prince decided wisely not to comment.

However, Yosho couldn't believe it that Ranma absorbed the fighting style of his family like a sponge. It was like she was a wandering tactical computer of a battleship. She had completed the Jurai sword style in almost a month. She really was a natural talent... and despite the fact that it was forbidden to teach the fighting style to outsiders, he had no regrets.

But it wasn't only the Jurai sword style that Ranma learned. She learned battle strategies, some control of her emotions, it seems that she really had a temper as a girl, and the Jurai prince insisted that she learned some better manners. And if there was no improvement in her behaviour, he just threatened to stop the sword lessons. That seemed to work for her. Even her boy-like nature was fading little by little… It was if she recently found out that she was a girl, something that Yosho found a little strange. Maybe he was just imaging things and was she just growing up.

However, there was a problem rising with the whole situation; he couldn't deny that he began to like the girl. She was wild and easygoing and she didn't worry too much about some things. Even talking with her wasn't a problem and he was surprised that she, a girl, was interested in many things that most girls would find boring.

But somehow the prince got often the feeling that Ranma was wearing a mask.

A mask; Yosho couldn't suppress the suspicion that Ranma was hiding something important from him. Of course, they shared some of their life stories, and the prince was often entertained with the strange adventures that she had experienced. But the prince of Jurai was not stupid, it was clear that Ranma hasn't told everything about her background. There were holes in her stories, elements missing.

Ranma seemed not to notice that Yosho began to see her more than as a pupil. But whenever he wanted to tell her about his feelings, there was always something that interfered. And then there was the fact that Ranma was constantly active with a lot of things, as if she wanted to forget something. It was her lessons, her martial arts, or helping the people in the area. But it seems that she wasn't really interested in the other sex.

It was an unpleasant situation for Yosho, and really frustrating…

**o000o **

The night has fallen and the moon was up in the cloud-free sky. It was a smog free air, and the beautiful night sky wasn't polluted, something that came with the modern era. No pollution and big cities; only clean air and green nature. On the roof of the house, Ranma lay on her back, staring to the sky, while thinking about the things that she had achieved and her life so far.

_"I can't believe that I've done so much in two months. Thanks to Yosho's lessons I am better than ever. Yosho... he told me that I am ready now, and he can teach me nothing more. I will definitely miss him when I'm back at home. Ah, after that I will try to get my hands on the magic kettle and undo the lock of my curse, it mustn't be that hard to do with the time travel ability. Yes, I don't think I can't wait any longer… Two months in my girl form already and it's if I lose a little bit of myself every day. I don't know how long I can fight this curse anymore... Damn hormones, I underestimated my own body. I can't believe that I was looking at Yosho that way, again! No way__, no sir; this is really bad!"_

Ranma held her hand up to the sky, and looked at her delicate fingers. Yes, her hand had calluses, but she missed the more powerful big hands of the boy-form.

"_Stupid curse, magic is really not logical. I always thought it was just my body that changed, but I forgot the fact that my stupid brain changed with the body. It's different when you change only on the outside, like some doctors can do with somebody. I should have known… Hardy har har, very clever, really… stupid curse." _

Ranma sighed and closed her eyes. Someone had heard her sighing and the person jumped without trouble on the roof.

"Hello Yosho," Ranma muttered with a smile. She changed to a sitting position and looked up to the Jurai prince.

"Hello young lady," greeted Yosho. "Do you have some troubles? It seems that you are more on the roof than in the house these last weeks. Sometimes I get the impression that you are trying to avoid me..."

The redhead was wearing her original clothes, the red blouse and black kung fu pants. Only her pigtail had changed, it was a little longer.

Ranma grinned while she kept staring to the night sky. "Come on Yosho. You know I like to gaze at the stars. Sometimes I let myself go and then I can see other fascinating worlds. Who would have thought that there's a whole new world out there..."

The prince of Jurai nodded silently. It was really a fascinating gift. In secret he let Funaho, his space tree, analyse her gift, but the conclusion was very disappointing. Ranma used a chaotic form of bio-energy deep within her, combined with some unknown energy matrix, like mana or something. It was something that Funaho couldn't duplicate with the energy of the Light Hawk Wings...

"It's really nice here, but it doesn't change the fact that I want to go home," she said softly and took a glance at Yosho.

The man just nodded and sat down beside her. Ranma couldn't see his face, so she didn't saw his disappointment.

"I... I understand that you want back to your own time, back to your family," he said almost whispering.

Yosho couldn't help to notice that Ranma was beautiful as always, and tonight her beauty was only enhanced with the moonlight. Why did she have to leave? It wasn't just fair… It wasn't even fair that she was like an untouchable, immune to advances of men. In the time that they shared the same place, she was very guarded around him.

Her training had been completed weeks ago, and if he was honest with himself, then he had to admit that she had become even better than his old master. He had only stretched the time between them, and for what? What was he hoping for?

"It may sound strange, but if I had had the opportunity I would have gone with you. This place will be empty without you…" the Jurai prince sighed.

Ranma smiled and stood up. "Don't worry Yosho. I can always travel back to this time."

The Prince of Jurai looked at her silently.

Ranma began to wonder why Yosho was twiddling with his thumbs. It was as if he wanted to say something important, but couldn't do it.

"Ranma... seriously, what do you think of me?" he asked suddenly.

The red-haired girl cocked her head and looked a little surprised. She folded her arms and began to watch the stars again while she thought about Yosho's strange question. He was acting really strange today...

"You're a good teacher. I think you would do great in a dojo. You are often very serious but... um, also very nice too. But you are also a pervert... I caught you peeping at me while I bathed a week ago."

The prince of Jurai was turning bright red. "Eh... sorry...," he said embarrassed. "Actually it was more a coincidence that I saw you bathing..." He could still feel the pounding that he got after that accident.

Ranma snorted and shook her head, some things will never change. "But... overlooking that day, I like you… I like you as a very good friend, Yosho."

After that it was quiet between them, while Yosho was staring at the stars with a wry smile. It was just the old plain 'I'm your friend' answer.

The quiet peace didn't last long.

"Ranma Saotome, this is all your fault! Come here you coward, and fight me!" somebody screamed not far away.

The red-haired girl looked surprised; what a time to come for a fight. Really, some things will never change.

"At least Michio is getting better," Ranma said grinning while cracking her fingers.

Yosho was palming his face.

**o000o **

The prince had given up. Maybe it was for the better, since Ranma was from a different time. Yosho couldn't believe that he let control himself by his feelings. And that was even after he barely escaped from an arranged marriage with his half sister. He could only love her as his sister, but not more… Talking about foreign cultures, he knew that something like that wasn't accepted on Earth. Understandable, since the people of Earth are genetically different from the people of Jurai.

But it wasn't only about Ayeka, his half sister. The Jurai prince felt like a fool.

"Why couldn't I just accept Airi, we loved each other. But no, I was so stupid… just because my family found out… And now…"

And now he fell for Ranma, a mysterious girl that he only knew for two months, and this time it was the girl that would leave him now, ignorant of Yosho's feelings.

Yosho sighed and he longed for a strong drink. These were the days that he wanted to forget everything. He just remembered that he kept something in reserve for special occasions. He opened a trunk and his eyes lighted up when he saw the three large bottles filled with the pink liquor; Shinji sake!

He had basically a reason to drink, since Ranma had finished her lessons, and was planning to leave within a few days.

It was at that moment that Ranma entered the living room and she looked strangely at the three large bottles, that Yosho put on the table.

The prince made a gesture to sit down, and began to open one of the big bottles. "I have kept this sake for special occasions and I think this is one of those moments. You know I told you that I can you teach nothing more, and thus I congratulate you as a new master of the Jurai sword style."

He poured two large glasses full of the strange sake. "Drink, my good friend, and let's have a party with us two."

Ranma wanted to tell him that she was a minor and couldn't drink alcohol, but then she remembered that this wasn't the same era, and there wasn't a rule that forbade alcohol for everybody younger then twenty years. She shrugged and took the large glass. She could never refuse a free drink or food.

"Okay, thanks for the drink Yosho," she said cheerful.

The red-haired girl took a little swig of the sake. Then her eyes grew, the flavour of the liquor was unbelievable.

"Wow, this is good stuff! Don't know what it is, but it's delicious!" said Ranma surprised.

Yosho smiled. "It should be. It's the best sake that you can get in the galaxy."

He didn't tell her that this sake was practically priceless, and only a few in the galaxy could pay for this 'gold in liquid form'. It was sake worth a whole planet…

**o000o**

A few hours and two empty bottles later, the two were not too bright anymore and pretty drunk. Alcohol was really like a trap, and very wise men always warned not to drink too much. You can never know what would happen…

"And I sssay that I'm a man, sseriously! I'm a maaan among men!" Ranma said, a little blushing of the alcohol.

After hearing this, Yosho began to laugh out loud.

"Heeey! Don't laugh, it's not funny. A splash of cold water, and there, puff, gone is my little peewee. Got only these stupid… melons. Yosssho stop laughing, it's no fun!"

"Yeah yeah, and now you can't get your peewee back thanks to that Herb..." the drunken prince said grinning.

Yosho moved to Ranma and put an arm around her.

"You're funny Ranma. Sssounds like a good joke when you would marry me, the joke of Jurai… hahaha… everyone will laugh. It will teach my father a lessson; how dare the old man to arrange a wedding with my own half sister! He even forbade marrying my first loooove!"

Yosho began to sniffle.

The red-haired girl shook her head slowly. "Marrying your own… s-sister? That's sssick... But I can s-s-sympathize with you, I have two… three fiancées. Akane was the first that my Pops arranged for me... hic, and…"

The prince looked a little strange to the redhead. "Three guys?"

Ranma shook her head slowly. "No, all three are girls."

The prince pushed slowly one finger in her bosom. "You looook like a girl to me. D-do you want children?"

"Hey, dooon't touch me theeere," cried Ranma, while she made an attempt to move his finger from her body. When that didn't work, she pushed Yosho away. A little drowsy she looked at the prince. "W-what did you ask? Chilli what?"

"No chilli, I… I asked if you want… ch-children."

"Oh suuure, lots of children, hic… very gooood for the dojo," the redhead replied and started to giggle.

Yosho shook his head. "Don't think you can get k-kids when everyone is a g-girl..."

The red-haired girl stared with drowsy eyes and nodded to Yosho. "That's true... all true. What should… I do?"

The prince blushed. "M-marry me, if you want lots of children for your dojo, I pro… I promise!"

Ranma looked suddenly suspicious at the prince.

"M… maybe you are a coooward, too afraid to marry," Yosho challenged her suddenly.

Ranma smacked angrily both her hands on the table and the empty bottles rolled off the table. "Hic… I am not a co-coward! I'm afraid of nothing!"

"Prove it if you're not… not afraid to marry me!" Yosho responded while he folded his arms.

And so in her drunken state, Ranma made the most bizarre promise in her life, a promise with enormous consequences. "I will m-marry you noooow! Hic... I ssswear it on my honour as a martial artist. Ranma Saotome is not… is not a coward!"

Somewhere far in the future, Genma got a strange feeling that he missed something very important. He began even to wonder if the whole fiasco with Akane couldn't have be done easier. It was as if he had missed a great opportunity...

And this was perhaps one of the many reasons that drinking in Japan was prohibited for minors until they were twenty? Who knows…

Yosho blushed, he got her… He took a swig of his almost empty glass. "There's nobody who co… could marry us. But as prince of Jurai I can d-do it. Okay, hic… by the power I was given I declare ourselves husband and wife. Co… Congratulations to us Ranma, we are married…"

"Yeah ... my Pops will loooove it hic…! Finally the future of the stupid dojo secured!" Ranma said cheerfully and she moved closer to Yosho. He was really a good friend, so helpful.

"Uhm… we n-need to kiss…"

"I don't k-kiss guys."

"You're a coward… wife… hic."

Shinji sake was really dangerous stuff...

Not too far from their home, the space tree Funaho, which was bounded with Yosho, had heard everything and found this important enough to share this happy news with the rest. The tree began to glow and began to send a coded message into space.

**o000o**

Ranma crawled out Yosho's arms and stood shakily up. "It was f… fun, but I want to go home Yosho," she mumbled and when she turned around, she saw that the prince was fast asleep. On the table were three empty bottles now. Ranma was very disappointed. It was really good stuff, and if she could, she would have taken a bottle with her to the future.

"I want to go… hic, but aren't we already married or something?" The red-haired girl realized. What must she do?

**o000o**

"Ranma!"

That voice was so familiar, where had she heard that voice before? And the headache… the noise was so hard!

"Ranma, wake up! What are you doing in the dojo!?"

Ranma slowly opened her eyes and blinked against the light that seemed brighter than it was normally.

Akane was kneeling down beside her and she looked very worried.

"Whoa, my head! Um, Akane? Huh, where am I? I'm home?" She stood slowly up and looked around, still a little dizzy.

"I'm home!"

"Of course you are at home dummy!" Akane cried and she hugged Ranma. "We have missed you terribly! You were gone more than two months!"

Ranma was shocked, not because she was home, but because this was for the first time that Akane hugged her...

She recalled the delicious sake that she and Yosho were drinking, but after that she couldn't remember much of it.

Ranma felt guilty that she had left Yosho without a proper farewell…

_To be continued..._

**o000o**

**There is no logic with magic and drunk people…**


	4. Hope and Disappointment

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma Half or Tenchi Muyo. I just write for fun and for free.

Note: Oh boy, got it this chapter finished, at least. I work only early in the morning and complete one page a day, often even less. So, that will explain why I'm so slow. There is no action this time… just a story slowly shaping up. But hopefully you will still like this chapter.

Have fun.

10/09/2009 - Beta done by Deathgeonous

**Chapter 4 - Hope and disappointment**

______________________________________

Ranma was home at last! But unfortunately she could not remember it how. The idea that she had travelled trough time in a drunken state, made her very uncomfortable. One thing was for certain though, no more alcohol for the time being.

It was Sunday morning, and it was around ten o'clock when Akane had discovered Ranma in the dojo. Even after all this time she still used her favourite yellow dogi.

Of course, almost everyone was surprised when Akane and Ranma entered the room.

"Look who I found in the dojo," Akane shouted excitedly.

She was instantaneously embraced by Kasumi. "Welcome home Ranma," said the eldest Tendo girl emotionally.

"Long time no see Saotome," Nabiki calmly greeted her as she made a quick greeting gesture with her left hand. She was still in her pyjamas, slurping coffee.

Genma and Soun gave a silent nod. Ranma had to groan at their stoic response, even after missing for two months! It surprised her, really. Even Soun didn't hug her and cry a river of tears like the Tendo man should do. It was clear that they still didn't know what to do with the current crisis.

In the two months that she was absent, the two fathers were still the same. Soun was still wearing his grey dogi, moustache and too long black hair. And then Genma, he was still bald as ever, and hiding it with a white bandana, and he still wearing his everlasting round glasses that he held on his nose with strings around his ears. As long as Ranma had known his father he had worn the same white dogi as always. They were men that didn't change easily.

Ranma's father stood up and gave her a pat. "Welcome back Ranma. I'm glad you decided to come home... boy. We feared that you were gone forever."

"Wow, what a great trust you have in your son, Pops," the redhead responded sarcastically.

The Tendo patriarch tried to look happy as he began to fold his newspaper that he was reading. "In any case, welcome home son."

"Thanks everybody," the red-haired girl replied with a smile.

Ranma took place at the table beside Akane and Kasumi offered a cup of tea to the redhead which she gratefully accepted.

"Have you heard anything about Ryoga and Mousse?" Ranma asked with a frown.

It was silent for a few seconds at the table and then the Tendo patriarch shook his head. "No, nothing. It is as if they disappeared from the earth. We had heard the bad news from Nabiki. We were shocked to hear about the betrayal of Hibiki and that Amazon boy." Soun had shed enough tears about the whole situation.

"Hmmm..."

The redhead took a sip of her tea, wondering what had happened to those two. She suspected that Cologne could give her an answer.

"Okay, but something else now. Tell son, where have you been?" Soun asked curiously.

Now everything was calmed down, Ranma's head had decided to punish her for all the sake from yesterday. The red-haired girl rubbed one of the temples of her head, and tried to massage away the nasty headache. Luckily she has not a heavy hangover… thanks to her strong physical condition.

"I was in the Okayama district, where I settled somewhere near a village for a while and did some work and learned a few things. It helped me to get through the day," Ranma said, shrugging.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "Come on Ranma, don't tell me that this is everything. I see something that you have kept as a souvenir with your last trip."

The youngest Tendo girl looked up in surprise. "A souvenir? What do you mean Nabiki, she had nothing with her when I found her in the dojo."

_"Oh no, everything is still with Yosho," _Ranma realized to her dismay.

A grinning Nabiki pointed to her forehead. "You might have not noticed it, but something glitters behind that red hair of her. You're hiding something, isn't it Ranma?"

Ranma frowned and sighed, her shoulder slumping down. "Your eyes are too sharp Nabiki…"

"Oh, a compliment," she replied dryly and sipped some more of her coffee.

The rest stared with strange eyes at the red-haired girl. "There is something on your forehead?" Akane asked surprised.

With a sigh the red-haired girl put down her teacup. She wanted to keep it a secret a little longer, but it seems that it was rather hard to keep it hidden from everybody. She pushed aside some of her red bangs and showed everyone her golden triangle that looked like an upside down pyramid.

"Huh?" The Tendo patriarch didn't like it one bit. "A tattoo on your forehead? Son, what is the meaning of this?"

"A beautiful golden triangle," said Kasumi fascinated.

The youngest Tendo girl shook her head and wondered what the idiot has done now.

Nabiki carefully studied the strange triangle, as she drank the last bit of her coffee. _"But why that shape?"_ she thought. _"Interesting… Ranma would never do something like this…"_

The father of Ranma growled. "Boy, you look ridiculous with that thing on your forehead!"

The red-haired girl shrugged. Ridiculous or not, but the price was low compared with what she got back, a very special gift. And she remembered that she had received this in exchange for some instant noodles... Ridiculous, indeed...

Akane touched Ranma's tattoo. It felt surprisingly metallic. "Why do you have something like that on your forehead?" she asked in wonder. "Who did it?"

"On my trip I met an old master of the Kimen Martial Arts School. He was starving, so I gave him some food. As a reward he gave me this special golden tattoo. I have only to focus my Ki on it and than I can go from one place to another without travelling. Don't ask me how it can, but it really works," the red-haired girl explained.

Genma's eyes grew wide. He began to see its value; it was the perfect technique to escape from any situation. Nothing could hold him, even if he was put in jail. He grabbed Ranma by the shoulders and looked at her with eagerness.

"Ranma, show me your new technique. I want to see it in action with my own eyes!"

"I don't know... but… ah all right…"

Genma was still surprised when Ranma disappeared before his eyes. For a second he even believed that she used a technique of the Umi-sen ken, something that he had sealed away.

Everybody began to look around, but she was really gone. Even the trained eyes of Soun, Akane and Genma couldn't see any speed movement of Ranma.

The redhead felled disoriented on her knees. Currently she had teleported herself in the garden, but now she felt very nauseous. It was as if all her energy was drained. It felt like a lamp that slowly dimmed. At that moment Ranma knew that she no longer could use her gift. This was the second time that this had happened. The only difference was that she had a little more energy left before it was all spent now.

_"Apparently it requires a lot of me for a time jump. I definitely have to wait one week before everything is okay."_

She walked half wobbling into the living room while her family looked amazed.

"Well old man, are you happy? Are you all happy now?" she said tired.

Everybody blinked their eyes.

"Well, that is what I call a good deal." Nabiki was thinking how she could use this, for money naturally.

The father of Ranma fumbled with his glasses while grinning. The Kimen Martial Arts School was something that he mustn't forget. He needed only to find that old man, not to forget a supply of food and he could ask him for this remarkable gift. Yes, that sounded like a great plan!

Kasumi was happy for Ranma that she got a very nice gift, but Akane was jealous… Ah, maybe she would have her own great change in the future. Don't give up Akane…

**o000o**

It was afternoon when Ranma was sitting on the floor with crossed legs, reading a manga. It was a sci-fi story about some huge robots and spaceships. Reading a manga was something she normally never did. Some time ago she had received the book as a gift from Hiroshi and all that time it was just gathering dust… until now.

Maybe she would see in the future a really big spaceship with her own eyes, who knows. Oh well, she had seen Ryo-Ohki and was a little surprised about the crystalline structure of the spacecraft, and the tree Funaho was much stranger... after hearing Yosho's story. It was most bizarre that you could use 'wood' for a spaceship! But they weren't that big in Ranma's eyes. A giant spaceship spoke more to Ranma's imagination. Maybe… just maybe she would get her own spaceship… a huge spaceship. Well, if she had her own spaceship, it had to be the best of course!

Her attention was distracted when there was a knock at the door.

"Ranma, your mother is here," warned Akane's voice.

It was purely a reflex when Ranma jumped through the open window and fell down, straight into the pond with a splash.

"Ranma?"

Akane opened the door and looked around in puzzlement. "I could swear that she was here..."

Out of the pound came a coughing and a very wet Ranma and she began to wring out a part of her red blouse. She was lucky that the weather was a little warmer now, even if it was early-spring.

A moment later a second splash sounded and Ranma was not surprised when a panda appeared behind her back.

Genma-panda stared a bit strange at Ranma, shrugged and quickly began with his panda routine once he heard the door opening.

"Oh, hello Ranko-chan? Oh child, its a few months ago since I've seen you. And you're wet again? Playing again in the pond?"

Ranma looked up at a beautiful woman dressed in a dark blue kimono, with reddish brown hair that she kept in a bun. Most notably, was the family katana that she had wrapped in a cloth. It was her mother, not knowing that the red-haired girl was her very own son... eh, daughter before her.

It was remarkable. Her husband Genma appeared to have a very special gift. Yes, the ability to make promises that somehow always showed its ugly face, and the promise with his wife Nodoka was really the 'greatest' of them all, butt-ugly figuratively speaking. Persuading your wife with a seppuku vow to get away with your son was really not the best idea that Genma had ever used. An oath with the lives of Genma and his son at stake, the oath to make from Ranma a man among man! But since his 'son' no longer met the definition of the ultimate form of masculinity... cough...

Well, since Nodoka took the oath deadly serious, hiding in 'plain sight' was the only option that Ranma and Genma had… for now.

Nodoka blinked her eyes for a moment, touched Ranma's forehead and brushed some red hair aside.

"Ara, what's this… eh something interesting. Is this a trend?" Nodoka asked curiously.

"Um, not really," muttered Ranma uncertain, not exactly in the mood to play the Ranko act.

"Hello Auntie Saotome," Akane greeted and when she saw the mother's interest in the strange tattoo, she quickly came up with a lie to save Ranma. "She plays a magical girl in a performance, and can't remove the tattoo now."

The redhead winced.

"Oh," replied Mrs. Saotome surprised. "I didn't know that you were an actor…"

Ranma jumped beside Akane. "Thanks, and what will you tell her the next time?" she sarcastically whispered in her ear.

The youngest Tendo girl frowned. "Well, excuse me, I only wanted to help," she replied irritated and disappointed.

The red-haired girl had not even the time to sigh when her mother put a hand on her shoulder. "Ranko so far, I have seen you only wearing these clothes. Don't you have more than this?"

Ranma froze for a moment, and then she got a very bad feeling.

**o000o**

_"I hate this!"_

She was barely home and now this. For two months she had lived without luxury, in a primitive environment. And now she was with Akane and her mother in a modern shopping plaza. The crowds, the noise... so many things, it was a very big difference compared with the quiet green place were Yosho lived.

The red-haired girl stared in a big mirror in front of her. The reflection showed a girl dressed in a green dress. It was not even her taste, it was way too girlish to be honest; it was more for a studious girl of the St. Bacchus School. The dress did not reflect her personality. Why did chose her mother this dress?

Trying girly clothes in a fitting room… how far could she sink?

_"I hate this! I can't even meet my own mother as a boy..."_

She sulked at her reflection that likewise was sulking back. The curtain of the fitting room was moved aside and Ranma's train of thoughts were rudely interrupted.

"Well Ranko? How is the dress?" Nodoka asked curiously.

When the mother inspected her from head to toe, she smiled. "Ranko dear, it looks very adorable; it really makes a pretty lady of you!"

"Ooh, do you really think so Auntie Saotome?" she replied in her best imitation of a toddler who just received a lollipop.

While the horrible dress was bought by Nodoka, the red-haired girl was pouting at the laughing Akane.

"It's not funny Akane," she responded with a grimace, relieved that her mother had finally released her of the torture that was called 'shopping for clothes'.

Still walking around inside the shopping plaza they decided to go to a café for a drink.

While each of them got a drink, Nodoka sighed and looked a little sad. "How long will it take before Ranma finally will come home?"

Ranma looked at her mother silently, not knowing what to say.

"Auntie Saotome, you miss him very much, isn't it?" Akane asked concerned.

"Well, he is the only son that I have. I really can't wait any longer. My son, all grown up and manly. What is keeping him away from me?" Nodoka said and sighed again at the thought of it.

Manly? Oh boy. Before Ranma can be back to be a real man, he… she needed to overcome a lot of hurdles.

But thanks to the long hard training with Yosho, the red-haired girl had changed for the better, or maybe it made her just a lot bolder…

_Battleship Ranma got ready for battle. _

_The first salvo... _

"But what if Ranma isn't manly? You should know that Mr. Saotome isn't the best example, you know," asked the red-haired girl, and then she took a sip of her glass.

Nodoka looked strangely at Ranma, as if she had said a forbidden word.

"Ran... Ranko!" Akane cried surprised and shocked.

The mother looked uncertainly at the redhead and held a hand for her mouth. "... Do you think Ranma is unmanly?"

The mothership responded to the attack.

"Of course Ranma is manly," Akane said very fast and she looked sharply at the red-haired girl.

Ranma waved away the response of Akane and continued to drink.

"Oh, if you say so Akane... well, you are his fiancée, aren't you?" Nodoka said a little relieved.

Akane blushed and quickly looked to her glass on the table. She forgot that Ranma wasn't very good marriage material at this moment.

The red-haired girl looked disappointed at her empty glass and looked up at her mother.

_Second salvo..._

"What is Ranma really for you Auntie Saotome? Are you really prepared to let your only son commit seppuku if he wouldn't be manly, even after all these years, your only son that you never saw? I remember that you reacted quite… strange when you heard he could be a cross dresser..."

Akane said nothing but could only stare wide-eyed at the red-haired girl.

Nodoka blinked.

Then she looked at the sky through a window...

At the birds...

The stores...

To a clock on one of the walls...

"Oh dear, it is already so late? I think it is time to go... isn't it? I will buy some crepes before we go..."

Ranma fell with her face on the table and Akane from her chair. They looked at each other in shock.

_The mothership quickly escaped to a crepes shop... and the second shot missed..._

Akane stared at the back of Nodoka. "You know Ranma, I think I take everything back what I said about your mother. I think you should better wait until you find a cure..." she whispered.

The youngest Tendo stopped for a moment when she realized one important fact. "Ranma sorry... I forgot..."

Ranma however casually waved it away and laughed. "Don't worry Akane. It's okay."

The youngest Tendo girl stared surprised at the red-haired girl.

**o000o**

The Tendo and Saotome patriarchs were in deep thoughts as they stared to the board. 'Go' was not the easiest game they had chosen today.

"This is an unpleasant situation," Genma muttered while he put a black stone on the board.

"You did manage to manoeuvre yourself in this situation," Soun said, grinning. Cheating could also work against you.

Genma shook his head. "No, dear Tendo, I mean the situation with my son Ranma."

"Oh, you mean our promise," Soun said with a sigh. "That indeed is a big problem. Well, I promised Ranma to take the responsibility..."

The father of Ranma looked sharply at Soun. "What responsibility? Ranma with you? Dear Tendo, I hope that it was a joke..."

Soun's face was serious. "The future of our school is in danger and I am willing to make some sacrifices. Too long I have let run everything its course. I never remarried and I have no sons. Without any offspring the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu will disappear, or at least it will no longer stay in our families."

The Tendo patriarch took a white stone and placed it on the board.

"And I'm not blind Saotome."

Genma looked at the board. Everything was even worse now.

The father of Ranma closed his eyes and fumbled with his glasses. He knew what Soun was talking about. Ranma was a little different when he was a girl. Jusenkyo... Genma wished more than ever now, that he had never visited that accursed place. Ranma cried often enough that he was a boy, and yet instead of fighting it tooth and nail, he was willing to throw aside his boys pride only for food, a martial arts technique or for another stupid reason. You would indeed often question his gender… Or was it maybe just because the boy looked in more ways like his father than he would admit...

But seriously, he really had hoped that his friend Soun was joking. And even if his friend was determined to put the whole idea through, Ranma would absolutely refuse. And if by some miracle the redhead would accept this farce… the difficulties that arose were really too much… ugh.

The Saotome patriarch shook his head, while putting a black stone on the board. "Sorry, but I can't support this plan. Even I know my limits, Tendo."

It was a quiet moment between the two old friends. Then Soun sighed and nodded. "I understand, Saotome. But this situation affects our family honour."

After saying this, the Tendo patriarch added a white stone to the game.

Genma stared outside to the garden and was silent. He was loosing the game.

**o000o**

The rest of the day went well for Ranma and Akane. The redhead had the chance to buy two manga's. Remarkable was the theme that Ranma had chosen, something that surprised Nodoka and even Akane. The redhead seems to have a new fascination with spaceships besides martial arts.

Nodoka could only sigh. Her attempt to make a real young lady of Ranma was a fruitless effort.

A bigger surprise was that Ranma also bought a VHS tape of Ulysses 31, a pilot of the animation that still had to be broadcasted on television. It was a French Japanese animation and it would only the next year in 1988 broadcasted by TV Asahi. She was fascinated by the strange ring-like design of the giant spaceship. The most notable was the eye in the centre of the ship. The story itself was not really that great, it was an ancient Greek story, given a modern new sci-fi look.

Ranma's mother had already left the Tendo's since she had other things to do. Of course Genma was a panda at that moment when Nodoka showed up with Akane en Ranma.

It was almost time for dinner, when Akane and Ranma watched the newly purchased animation on television. The rest was surprised that the young martial artist had gained a new interest in sci-fi manga's and animations.

Genma grinned at Soun who only shook his head. It seems that there was still a boy's heart in Ranma, trapped in the form of a girl.

"I love that spaceship, I really wish that I had my own," Ranma said with a sigh. She stared dreamily at the animation with her chin in her palm. The meeting with Yosho had something awakened in her, something like an old boys dream that came true.

"Idiot..." Akane replied, laughing.

Nabiki was reading the manga's that the redhead had bought. She took a glance at the television and began to get a strange feeling. Ranma was never interested in these things unless it had a purpose. A golden triangle on her forehead, teleportation, spaceships... If you summed up those three, and looked at the outcome.

The middle Tendo girl frowned for a moment. _"Don't tell me that you've seen aliens now!"_ That thought seemed really too farfetched. She resumed very quickly with the reading of the manga. _"Forget it... forget it very quickly Nabiki Tendo..."_

When the table was set for dinner, it looked very festive today. Kasumi had actually prepared a welcomes dinner to the delight of everyone. They were also surprised with the changed eating habit of Ranma which had become quite civilized.

After diner Soun coughed to attract the attention and looked at the red-haired girl. "Ranma we're really all glad that you are back in our midst. But you understand that the situation… cough… has changed. What are your plans for the future?"

"And what about the two months school that you missed boy?" Genma added, looking serious. "Ranma, you have to work hard if you want to make it to the next class. It seems they have a new policy there at Furinkan High School, and they take a lot of things more seriously. You don't want to know what I had to do to keep you registered in that school!"

The red-haired girl pulled nervously at her pigtail. School… future… Welcome in the modern world.

"Honestly, I haven't thought about school, and I'm sorry for the problems that I caused. But somehow I found a way to break my lock. There exists another magical artefact that can do it. Because of that I wanted to leave next week again. The journey will take some time, and even with my new gift, I need all the energy to get there."

"Yeah, one week rest before I can make a journey through time again," Ranma thought, sighing inwardly. Time travelling was something that she could better keep a secret; it would only create more problems if they knew of this ability.

Akane wasn't really surprised, but the others looked astonished.

"Oh." Soun scratched under his chin. It seems there was still a change for Ranma, and hopefully not a false one.

Genma looked surprised and hopeful at his son... err daughter. "Well, that's very good news. Can you tell us where this artefact is?"

_"Oops, how do I explain this...?" _

"Uhm... it's here in Japan, that's all what I can say," Ranma replied cautiously.

Genma and the rest looked strangely at Ranma. Curious as they were, they kept asking. But even when everybody kept insisting, the red-haired girl did not divulge where the 'artefact' was. Even Nabiki couldn't pull an answer out of the stubborn redhead, and eventually they gave up. They could only guess why Ranma wanted to keep this a secret, but they decided not to press it anymore, even if it was strange.

The Tendo patriarch sighed. Wouldn't or couldn't Ranma tell them why not? It didn't matter. If Ranma would succeed it wouldn't be a problem. But…

"Ranma, you will not tell us. Okay, that is your decision. But remember, when you fail, what will you do about our family honour? I hope that you didn't forget my promise…" Soun warned earnestly.

The red-haired girl gulped. That was something that she completely forgot. Akane went white in the face while Nabiki raised an eyebrow.

"Ara… Father, you aren't serious, are you?" Kasumi exclaimed.

With a nod Soun resumed. "Yes, I know, and maybe I was a little too serious," he said while glancing to his old friend. "But I came to my senses and I found a solution. So, if you fail, I will try to arrange a marriage for you with the other members of the Tendo family. We aren't the only ones, you know."

Ranma lowered her head and was silent. While her father took honour not too seriously, it seems that Soun was dead set on it. But then she smiled and raised her head again.

"Don't worry Mr. Tendo, it will be a piece of cake!" she answered confident.

**o000o**

It was already two months ago that Ranma last slept in the bedroom of the Tendo's home. But now she was back, she had to share it again with a snoring panda, her father. When she lived with Yosho, they had both their own separated rooms. The snoring, that was something that she needed to accustomed again.

After a few long hours awake of the irritating sound of sawing wood, she fell finally asleep.

Two months away from Nerima was very long without all the things that happened around Ranma, so somehow the quota for strangeness had to be filled…

It was around four o'clock in the morning when a strange phenomenon occurred. A small blue light was slowly flying in the streets of Nerima, like it was carried by the wind. It was a little blue ball of energy, not much bigger than a pinhead, and its direction was the Tendo's home. It entered the garden and the walls of the house were meaningless, because it went just through it.

After flying through a few walls it was obvious that the target was Ranma's bedroom. It started to move faster and faster like it was attracted by a magnet, and it kept speeding up until it was a blue stripe of light, shooting right into the sleeping body of Ranma.

The body of the red-haired girl glowed with light blue light that quickly dimmed. Ranma rolled on her side and murmured in her sleep.

_"Tenma… Minaho…" _

**o000o**

**Monday, school day...**

It took some time for Ranma to get used to the fact that she needed to go to school, again. Two months in a primitive environment did make you easily forget normal things like school. An old habit returned when she ran over the fence along the canal. But as usually Akane took the normal route on the road while she took occasionally a glance at the red-haired girl. For the youngest Tendo girl it was also something that she needed to accustom herself to, now that that Ranma was back.

Both ran through the gate and a quick look at the clock of the school told them that they had only had a few minutes before the school bell went off.

Ranma was relieved that Tatewaki Kuno didn't waylay them. She wasn't in the mood, or better said, she was never in the mood to see his stupidity, to hear his poetry nonsense, and don't forget, to feel his absolutely unwanted embrace.

**o000o**

"No sensei, I'm stuck as a girl! And if you don't like it, then speak with my Oyaji; most of it is his fault anyway!" Ranma growled at the teacher that looked strangely at him... at her. It was rare that Ranma appeared as a girl in the class.

Everyone in class started to whisper to each other. A look in the class told Ranma that not much had changed. She saw Ukyo Kuonji that looked surprised and shocked. Hiroshi and Daisuke, his school friends, were remarkably quiet and the rest of the class was normal. Wait, where was Hikaru Gosunkugi?

The man coughed nervously. "Don't worry. But the new principal wanted to see you when you were back on school and she would expect a boy, not a girl. She was really eager to meet the current delinquent. So, I kindly request you to go directly to the principal, now you're back at school."

Ranma looked surprised at the English teacher. Since when did the school have a new principal, what had happened in the two months that she was gone?

"Uhm, okay, who's the new principal anyway?"

The man coughed again. "Hinako Ninomiya and I give you the advice to take her very seriously, despite her… uhm… youthful appearance."

A wondering Ranma left the class. So, the school got a new principal.

**o000o**

Ranma knocked uncertainly on the door, and she could almost swear that she heard the voice of a child calling her to enter. When she came in the office she had to admit that the English teacher didn't make a joke. It had to be the understate of the year. Behind the luxury desk sat not a woman, but a little girl and Ranma guessed that she was around ten to twelve years old. She had long brown hair, dark blue eyes and was dressed in a yellow dress. She looked more like an Out Of Place part than a principal so to say. _(1)_

The desk gave a messy impression like the rest of the office. It looked more like a child's playroom. It seemed that this young principal didn't understand the meaning of tidying up your room. Notable were the opened candy boxes that were scattered over her desk.

Ranma snorted, and almost couldn't hold her laughter. She didn't knew what happened to the old principal Kuno, but she felt that there wasn't really changed much in this crazy school.

"Who are you and who sent you? Are you a delinquent?" The girl asked seriously. She tried to be authoritative but it was lost with her child's voice and her cute image.

The redhead made a quick short bow. "My name is Ranma Saotome and I'm just back in school. The English teacher told me to come here. I understand that you wanted to see me?"

Hinako looked surprised, jumped off her chair and walked to Ranma. She looked up at her face. Frowning, she held a finger to her chin. "I was told that you are a delinquent boy, but you are a girl. Strange, how could the old guys make such a mistake? Hmm, but you look like a delinquent. You're not wearing the school uniform, and you got a strange tattoo on your forehead."

From her lower position she could see more than the others. Ranma began seriously to consider the idea to hide the mark with a patch, it began to annoy her.

Principal Hinako grabbed a lollipop from her desk, pulled the plastic off and put it into her mouth. When she saw that Ranma looked strangely at her, she took another.

"You want one too?"

Ranma was surprised with the offer of Hinako and was unsure for a brief moment, but then she smiled and took the offer with a nod. While both where sucking on their sweet, the redhead realized something.

"Uhm, what really happened with the other principal Kuno?"

The young principal took the lollipop out of her mouth and her face became serious. "A few months ago, the bad man asked me to come to this school because of the delinquents. I've never really understood what exactly the problem was, especially since he no longer wanted to tell me after he saw who I was..."

Ranma wasn't surprised and just grinned while she tried to imagine the surprised face of principal Kuno.

"After several weeks I understood that the only real delinquent was principal Kuno himself. I became really scared when I lost almost my beautiful hair by that crazy haircutting maniac, and I wasn't the only one. He was totally obsessed. After that I called an important mister and he took the bad man away, fast! But there was no other principal available and nobody wanted the job, so I proposed to do it myself, and they went okay with it. And now I am the new principal of this school!"

And after this statement, Hinako made a proud victory sign with her little hand.

Ranma could not help but to applaud for the small principal. "I think you are the hero of this school. Nobody else could get Kuno off this school. "

Hinako nodded as she shone with pride.

"But seriously, aren't you too young and too small for a principal?" Ranma asked while she patted the little girl on her head.

Well, that was something that Ranma shouldn't have done and said. The young principal was looking angry and she pulled a fifty yen coin out her pocket and held it for Ranma's face.

"Happo Fifty-Yen Satsu!"

Ranma fell shocked on her backside while she saw the young girl transform into a woman, a woman that she guessed was around twenty year. Somehow her Ki-energy was sucked up through the hole of the Japanese fifty yen coin that flowed directly in the little girl, resulting in the new quickly transformed young adult and well formed version of Hinako. The yellow dress that she was wearing, was just enough for her larger body now, hugging her body almost like a second skin.

"Still calling me young and small, young lady?" Hinako responded with a cool and almost sexy voice.

"Wha... what was that?" Ranma stammered surprised, after she took the lollipop out of her mouth. She was lucky that she had more energy to spend than normal people, otherwise she would lay sprawled on the ground now, with all her Ki-energy stolen.

"That, my dear, was only a part of the ultimate secret technique of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu, the 'Eight Treasures of the Deadly Five-yen Piece'. I'm surprised that you have still some energy in you, you're good."

"I'm the best," Ranma replied with a grin, while she slowly got up. "So, it's a part of my martial arts school huh? Okay, now it is very obvious why you are the principal."

Hinako looked neutral, not really surprised that the redhead was a student of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu. As principal you had to be aware of many things, and the visit of Ranma's father also helped… She just wondered why Ranma was registered as a boy. That was something that had to be corrected soon.

"You seem reasonable, young lady, so I give you a fair change. It is required to wear a school uniform at this school, and I see no reason to give you an exception. Make sure you come dressed according to the school regulations, tomorrow. And concerning about your strange golden mark on your forehead, who am I to judge about your strange habits? The only thing that I don't tolerate, are delinquents. Do you understand, Miss Saotome?"

Somehow the serious image of the adult principal was lost because she was pointing with her lollipop to her.

The red-haired girl nodded silently and put her own lollipop back in her mouth. Then she staggered on her feet while turning to the door. Anyway, principal Hinako was really a fearsome person even if she obviously didn't practice the art like she did, as her sharp eyes noted. But still, principal Hinako wasn't somebody to sneeze at…

**o000o**

With a sigh, Ranma took a seat at her place and got a thoughtful look on her face. She began to pull on her pigtail that lay over her shoulder while thinking about the meeting that she had with the new principal. She wasn't aware of the strange or adoring looks that everybody gave her, but maybe it had to do with the fact that she still had the lollipop in her mouth or because somehow her whole image screamed 'cute'.

The martial arts technique that Hinako used was fascinating. What was that technique for? Could she learn it too? But somehow she got a bad feeling; there was something wrong about it. The whole thing had the smell of Happosai all over it.

Among the classmates next to Akane there was still another 'fiancée' of Ranma in the classroom. An unusual girl dressed in a boy's uniform, dark green eyes, long dark brown hair in pony style with a white 'ribbon'.

Ukyo Kuonji, the okonomiyaki chef extra-ordinary, martial artist and cross dresser, stared sadly at Ranma.

Her little dream world began slowly to crumble down. She had heard everything from Akane and even Nabiki, and even then she couldn't believe it that her old childhood friend and fiancé had lost a battle and even lost his manhood.

But now, two months later she was confronted with the harsh reality. Ranma was no longer a man, no longer able to hold their old promise. Nowadays Ukyo could call herself quite an expert when it came to 'cross dressers', but now she could see clearly that her childhood friend had changed. It was subtle and Ran-chan... no, that was no longer her Ran-chan!

Her dream was no longer in reach; she was robbed of her purpose... Her heart broke and Ukyo Kuonji had no idea what she should do now.

The teacher looked at Ukyo when she lifted her hand.

"Sorry sensei, but can I go? I'm not feeling well…"

The man nodded and Ukyo left the classroom with a fast pass. Akane saw with a quick glance the tears in Ukyo's eyes, and then she looked to Ranma that sat beside her.

Ranma was surprised and wanted to get up to follow her, but Akane grabbed the redhead's arm and shook her head. For a moment Ranma doubted what to do, but then decided to listen to Akane. Maybe this was something personal, a girl's thing.

However, the lesson was as usual very boring for Ranma, and soon she was on the school desk asleep.

"Miss Saotome?"

"SAOTOME!?"

The teacher sighed, because he knew that if he threw an eraser at her head, Ranma's remarkable reflects would just catch it, even in her sleep.

Ranma remained quiet asleep. However, one poke of the irritated Akane startled the red-haired girl.

"Uncute, why did you do that!?" Ranma hissed at the youngest Tendo. Akane gave in turn a snort and pointed to the teacher.

"Young man... eh young lady!" said the annoyed teacher. "If you think that my class is that boring, why don't you read us aloud page thirty-five of the English book?"

Muttering, Ranma opened the book. It was one of those teachers that just made an example out of her just to make her look like a fool instead of sending her out the class, or to let her sleep.

Reluctantly, the redhead looked at the jumble of words that presented the English language. While she could speak it because of her travels with her father, the written language was something else. But then she blinked her eyes, because amazingly enough she understood now clearly what the text in the English book said!

"To be or not to be, --that is the question: --

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?"

_William Sh__akespear - first part of Hamlet_

Everyone blinked their eyes in disbelief when the red-haired girl read out the text accentless and fluently. The teacher looked surprised since he knew Ranma's weak point. No longer was she stuttering, even her speech had greatly improved. Probably she had some practice in the two months that she was absent.

"That... that was perfect. Keep this up and you will end up on the right track," he praised, "but I would appreciate it if you don't sleep in the class!"

The red-faced Ranma could only nod. The lesson resumed while several classmates, including Akane, were looking with curious glances at the redhead.

**o000o**

The bell hardly heralded the school break, or almost everyone had already gathered around the red-haired girl.

"Ranma, is it really true that you can't turn back into a boy?" Hiroshi asked worried. Daisuke stood beside him, who also looked worried. The two friends found the Jusenkyo curse fascinating, but the idea to be locked as a girl… even they felt there were limits.

The red-haired girl nodded. "Yes, but it's temporary…"

The two school friends and the rest looked at her expectantly and Ranma shrugged.

"You think I do want to remain like this with the rest of my life? Luckily I found a solution, but I have still to wait a few days."

Daisuke patted encouragingly the red-haired girl on her shoulder. Then he whispered in her ear. "It's good to hear, but can you still lend us one of your 'girlfriends' for now?"

The redhead glared at the grinning Daisuke, and was almost tempted to bury her fist in his face… Sometimes the two boys were just like a pack of girl hungry wolves. They would probably even ask her out for a date, if they had the nerves for it.

"What have you on your forehead?" one of the more sharp-eyed girls asked.

Internally Ranma was cursing now, and started with her tale, again. Meanwhile, she wondered where Ukyo was, since she still hasn't returned.

Akane's two friends Yuka and Sayuri tried to get some news about Ranma from her.

"It will be hard for you, now Ranma can't still turn back in a boy. How are you handling it?" Yuka asked a little bit sympathetic.

Sayuri nodded in agreement. "Yes, you are Ranma's fiancée; it would be troublesome if it was permanent. What will you do if Ranma can't find a solution for her… his problem?" she asked.

The youngest Tendo tried to smile and waved with her hands. "It isn't that bad… As far as I know, Ranma managed to find a solution… at least, he's confident enough about it, that he will turn back as a boy," Akane answered. _"Hopefully…" _

The last was said unheard.

**o000o**

Ranma could escape at last and searched everywhere for Ukyo. Eventually she found her old friend on the roof of the school. She stared at the horizon and her hands gripped the grid of the fence.

"Uc-chan?" Ranma asked uncertainly.

Ukyo slowly turned her head to Ranma's direction.

"Ran-chan..."

The okonomiyaki chef sighed and shook her head.

"Two months Ranma... More then two months you were gone! You left not even a message for me and didn't call me on the phone… not a word of you! What am I to you Ranma? Worse, you took those two... jackasses with you and you forgot me? The things I knew about you, where from Akane and Nabiki. What am I, chopped liver? Why didn't you say anything to me? Didn't you think I was not willing to go with you? Am I not your 'cute' fiancée, and best childhood friend?"

Ranma was silent. It was indeed the truth that she didn't think for one second about Ukyo at that time. But she was her friend, right? She swallowed nervously and began to fidget while she stared at the ground. She wanted to tell her that she had a solution and that she could turn back to a boy, but somehow she couldn't say it, not without feeling guilty now.

"I thought so; you can't give me even an answer. And now you're back, you aren't even the same person anymore… you've changed," Ukyo said with a snort.

The red-haired girl frowned. What changed? So far she knew, she was still the same person, so what was new here? Okay, she was no longer an uncivilized idiot, Yosho had seen to that. But that means nothing…

Ukyo walked to her red-haired girl and wanted to pass her along to the door. However, she stopped beside her. "Ran-chan, honey, you've spent too long in your girl form, far too long."

Ranma stood as frozen when Ukyo left the roof.

**o000o**

**Somewhere in the district of Okayama, Masaki dojo, evening.**

Two persons dressed in a white dogi were watching each other, while they were in an attack stance with their bokken in the hands. It was an old man that was teaching his grandson his family sword-style.

The twelve year old brown-eyed boy had short black hair that ended in a little tail, and somehow he was clearly out of breath and frowned at the old man.

"Grandfather, seriously, why do you live so isolated from the rest of us. Your house and this dojo are so high up… it's really a long climb before I'm here. And given the whole family matter with this so-called trapped 'oni', I'm surprised that there isn't a shrine here. You would probably even look good as a priest," muttered Tenchi Masaki.

The red-brown eyes of the old man twinkled. The long grey hair of Yosho… or better said, Katsuhito Masaki, swayed with his moving body while laughing loudly. Then the old man smiled and sadly shook his head when the very old memories came back to him.

"Believe me boy, your forefather Yosho would have become a shrine priest if it wasn't because the insistence of his wife. She found it a great place for a dojo and so the first dojo was built here, a tradition that is still keeping on… Even your grandmother found it a great place!"

Katsuhito pushed his square glasses against his nose and sighed. The tragedies of life, ah, how he missed the red-haired girl, even after all this time. But 449 years was an unbelievable old age for an Earthling. And the stubborn woman would probably even have lived longer if she not made that sacrifice in a battle… for their daughter Minaho. It shortened her lifespan heavily… The old man shook his head. The pain of loss left always deep scars, even after years. But at least she said that she lived a great life, and hadn't any regrets of her decisions. And somehow he could never shake off the feeling that she knew a lot of things… things that she took with her in her grave.

It was really regrettable that two of their children weren't blessed with a longer life. His youngest daughter and his eldest son were deceased now. The middle daughter, Minaho, who was still alive, was not currently at home. She was still alive because of the fact that she had more Jurian blood in her then the other two children. But at least their oldest son Tenma had many children and they all took their own path in life; the Masaki family was really widespread.

But he couldn't dwell in the past. The now motherless Tenchi was the son of his youngest daughter Kiyone, and he needed all his attention. It was a shame that the boy was only interested in the Jurai sword style and not the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu... But that could always change; the boy had still a whole life ahead.

"Oh, was she good?" Tenchi asked curiously.

The old man grinned. "She was the best! She learned our family sword style perfectly in less than a month. Hopefully you have still enough of your grandmother in you, to show me what you really can do!"

"No way!" Tenchi's eyes widened. "A month!? Even a pro can't do it within one month!"

"And that's why you don't make any progress my boy. Believing in your self is a great step forward, and she did many impossible things. If she could do it, why would you not?" Katsuhito responded and then he began with his attack. "You have her blood in you boy, just like your mother!"

**o000o**

**At the Tendo's, Nabiki's bedroom. **

The middle Tendo girl looked up from her homework and stared at the red-haired girl.

"Keep it short, Saotome," Nabiki said, while she tapped her pen on her desk.

Ranma nodded and frowned. "What happened to Hikaru Gosunkugi and Tatewaki Kuno? I saw that they were no longer in school."

For a moment Nabiki looked surprised, and then she held her hand out. "1000 Yen, and I tell you."

Muttering, Ranma paid the requested amount and Nabiki quickly put the money away.

"I suppose you heard about principal Kuno."

The red-haired girl nodded briefly.

"Well, this happened a few weeks later when she became the new principal. Tatewaki Kuno was obviously pleased with the resignation of his father. I've heard that you already know about the strange transformation technique of principal Ninomiya? Well, Kuno was dumb enough to fall for the older form of Hinako and kept harassing her, even if she was the new principal. You can probably guess what happened to him. He was suspended indefinitely... he was 'gone with the wind' quite literally. Eyewitnesses saw him swirl out of the school and drifting away with the east wind, completely 'sucked dry'."

Ranma chuckled. "Well, that serves him right."

However, Nabiki looked less pleased since she lost a good money source.

"But the second person... I think you make a mistake. There was never a Gosunkugi in the Furinkan High School," said the middle Tendo girl, "but I guess you must have seen him somewhere."

She opened the drawer of the desk and searched for a specific magazine.

"Ah, here it is." She quickly opened a page. "Hikaru Gosunkugi, a promising talented photographer who is active in the fashion world. He owes his job thanks to his parents, who owns a very successful agency that helps others to find a good partner. So Ranma, what is your business with him?"

The red-haired girl stared with wide eyes and open mouth. Then she turned around. "Never mind, I think I've made a mistake, sorry."

Ranma left half shakily the bedroom, and Nabiki shook her head grinning. "Ranma, Ranma... no doubt there's a strange story behind this..."

When Ranma closed the door behind her, she began to sweat. This was the first sign of a change cause of her meddling in the past. And yet, the whole situation was absurd. It was a great shock for the red-haired girl to learn that an insignificant figure as Gosunkugi was suddenly a celebrity. But how could a small thing in the past cause such a major chance? More strange was the fact that nothing was changed with Ryoga…

But there was something more about Gosunkugi, something important. If Gosunkugi wasn't in Furinkan High School, what more had changed in the timeline? What about the Cat-fu affair for example? He played a major role in it, didn't he? But thinking about it, it could give her only a headache. She decided to let it work out for itself, maybe she only thought the worst of it.

**o000o**

For the next schooldays Ranma got from Akane her old school uniform. The red-haired girl was also confronted with the irritating fact that Kasumi insisted to wear the proper underwear, including of course a bra which the redhead really hated.

You would ask of course how Ranma had solved this problem in the last two months, where women hadn't this luxury. Without any support it could be very irritating since she was a very active person. In many cases she used bandages like Ukyo, to give her bust more support during the long training sessions. And for the rest, because she was still young she wasn't afraid of sagging since a bosom got a natural bra function that's called 'Cooper's Ligament', a strong tissue under the breasts. As martial artist she wasn't totally ignorant of her own body, you know, it's just that a normal person wouldn't think about it.

'Equal rights' was something that she understood now, even if her father had a different view. But there was really a difference in body, power and even in mind between the two sexes. It was just a fact that without her Ki, she was just a lot more vulnerable as a girl, strong yes, but still vulnerable. She would have lost against somebody like Ryoga and Mousse. It was even a fact that she almost had lost against Mousse, because through the difference in body height alone… And now she was permanently (temporary as she would say) a girl, she couldn't even ignore the facts of biology… The monthly unwelcome visitor was really a hindrance in her training with Yosho and still a reminder of her situation.

But that were just things that she didn't talked about it. These were just things that humans had to accept and there were more important things in life and in this story. Ranma wasn't somebody that would sulk long… she was a martial artist after all.

**o000o**

For Ranma and Akane it was significantly quieter at school, since Kuno was no longer present. Ukyo kept a distance of Ranma since their meeting at the school roof and the redhead wondered what she needed to do, to heal their friendship.

It was at Wednesday afternoon when Ranma decided to visit the Cat Café. It surprised her that she hasn't got a visit from the Amazons already. Maybe they still didn't know that she was back, or it was very busy in the café. Anyway, the reason for the visit was that Ranma wanted to know what had happened with Mousse and Ryoga.

When Ranma entered the café, she saw that Shampoo was dressed in her typical waitress costume of the Cat Café. Of course she hasn't changed much in the two months. She had still long purple blue hair with the ornaments, light brown eyes and of course a great body which only a few could competed with.

Shampoo looked up and wanted to greet the new customer. However, she looked really surprised, when she saw that it was a redheaded girl with a pigtail, a person who she hasn't seen for more than two months.

"Ni hao... Ranma," Shampoo greeted and immediately she flew to the red-haired girl and gives her an almost breathtaking hug.

"Hello Shampoo," greeted the red-haired girl with a smile. It was a surprisingly warm greeting from Shampoo, but Ranma lost her smile when she saw that Shampoo's eyes were no longer passionate, but rather sad.

"Shampoo happy that Ranma is safe. Shampoo heard what had happened to Ranma," sighed the Amazon girl. "Please sit down; I'll get great-grandmother. Too bad can't sit, very busy here… with stupid Mousse gone!" The last was said with a growl of hate.

The red-haired girl nodded, and took a seat at a table. She took a quick look at the menu while waiting calmly for Cologne. She could not much remember about the phone call with Cologne, but she knew it had been quite emotional. The battle and betrayal were still fresh in her memory. But after meeting the strange old martial artist, her life took a completely different turn. Aliens and Time Travel... wow…

"Ah Ranma, how are you dear?" Cologne asked, while she took the chair on the opposite of the table.

The old woman looked the same as always, very old. With her dwarfish look, she could be easily mistaken for something other than a human. How often she had used her old staff to smash… to correct some people she could only guess. She had long white hair, very big… uhm old eyes and she was dressed in a traditional old green Chinese matriarch clothing of her townspeople. From what Ranma had heard, she was quite the looker when she was young, but that was hard to believe when you saw her appearance now.

Three hundred years could really change somebody…

"Better," replied the red-haired girl with a nod. "You didn't visit us, so I wasn't sure if you already knew that I was back."

The old Amazon matriarch shook her head. "No, this is the first time in months that we've seen you. We were very busy since your absence, and I'm still trying to hire somebody, but not many can handle the work pressure here… unfortunately. My great-granddaughter however, works like as if there's no tomorrow. It's just her way to handle her emotions, I guess…"

Ranma nodded. A lot of things have happened, but she never thought that it would end like this.

"Hmm, what actually became of Ryoga and Mousse?" Ranma asked, frowning now.

Cologne sighed. "I gave them the 'cat tongue shiatsu' as punishment. It seemed appropriate, I thought. If I had the choice I would have used the water from the Pail of Preservation, giving them the same fate like yours. After their punishment I haven't seen them anymore. They are probably looking for a cure now."

The red-haired girl stared at her hands and nodded silently. She had never thought that they would go that far… just because they thought that she was in the way of Akane or Shampoo. They were really stupid. Maybe the punishment was still to light for them… or not. It was mainly because they had no human forms like her. As an animal they have a lot more trouble to find a cure, that's for sure…

"By the way, I tried to find a solution for your problem," said the old Amazon, "but I think that you already know the answer child. There is no way to fix this without that Water Pot of Liberation. I'm sorry Ranma, but you will be for the rest of your life a girl. Given the situation I have decided with pain in my heart that you can't be longer my son-in-law and Shampoo's husband."

"I see…" the redhead said a little disappointed and she began to pull on her pigtail. Was this the price that she had to pay, to get finally to be free of the Amazons?

Shampoo glanced silently at Ranma while she currently attended a few guests. Her 'airen' wasn't longer her husband. Not that Ranma that ever had accepted it, but it was a loss for her anyway. Her heart still ached, but she had to be strong, she was an Amazon and she shouldn't show her weakness so easily, not here in the café. But what would her great-grandmother do now? Would she still invite Ranma to come back with them to their village? Boy or girl, Ranma was still a very strong warrior, something that you couldn't easily ignore.

It was almost surreal for the redhead. It was ironic, but while Cologne couldn't find a solution, it wasn't impossible for her, because she could travel through time and get the artefact long before they arrived or destroy it. When you thought about it, her gift was a great power with a lot of responsibility. Was it wise to tell Cologne about her gift? Now that she finally had given up on her?

"Ranma, may I ask you something," Cologne asked suddenly.

The red-haired girl looked at the old Amazon matriarch. "Uhm what?"

Cologne pushed with the tip of her old staff her bangs on her forehead aside. "You really surprise me Ranma. I didn't think you were the type for tattoos. From who got you that golden mark on your forehead? I can vaguely remember something about it and I know that it's very special. What is it for? Did you hope that it could help you to break the lock on your Jusenkyo curse?"

_"Oops... Stupid, I forgot to cover-up the mark with a patch..."_

Ranma decided to tell her the truth, but not everything. "I got it as a reward from an old martial artist. It's something that I can use to teleport from place to place. But a few days ago I used too much energy, so I can't demonstrate it to prove it," she answered and then she began to tell again her the story how she met the strange old man.

Cologne nodded after the story, but than she looked thoughtfully. "That sounds interesting, but I'm sure that you can do more with it, it's just that I can't remember everything about it. However, but I'm worried about something…"

It was Ranma that became more worried now. Because when Cologne was worried, it could be very serious.

"That tattoo uses 'mana', and I'm afraid that the man mistook your Jusenkyo curse as a source of this energy. Maybe he made that mistake because the curse holds some mana energy like a battery, but it is not much, really. The fact is that the Jusenkyo curse uses the surrounding mana energy as its source. But that magical mark can't do that, only people born with a natural mana core can use this sort tattoo."

The redhead began to see the problem. "And I don't have a mana core, don't I?"

The old Amazon shook her head. "No, but surprisingly it seems to work for you. Really, it's a miracle that it even can work, because it is well known that a Jusenkyo curse is very fickle. You can never trust it when it will do something or not. But it is possible now because the curse is locked, I guess."

Shampoo had been standing with them while listening and stared at the strange golden triangle on Ranma's forehead. "Aiyah, so Ranma magical girl now."

The redhead winced. That was something she hated to hear.

A foreboding crept in Ranma and filled with dread she looked at the old Amazon. "But what... what if I could break the 'lock', what do you think would happen?"

Cologne got a thoughtful frown on her face. "In the best case it would mean that the tattoo became useless. However, in the worst case it would mean that you have absolutely no control over it. Think more like Ryoga, you would teleporting at random... never knowing your destination…"

Ranma's face turned deathly pale, something that Cologne did frown and narrow her eyes to slits. "Ranma, I get the impression that you've not told me everything..."

The red-haired girl began to sweat and stood up quickly. "I uh, look at the clock, is it already that time? I have to go, sorry. And I hold you only up, it's pretty busy here heh... bye Shampoo, Granny..."

Before the two Amazons could blink with their eyes, Ranma had already left the café, fast!

Cologne began to rub her forehead and sighed. "Ah, the recklessness youth..."

**o000o**

Ranma's heart beat faster and faster, and she could almost feel al her nerves of her body. The redhead was really upset. She ran and ran, and then she slowly stopped and leaned with her back against a wall. She couldn't remember that she ever reacted like this.

The plan was so simple. Take a leap back in time and use the kettle. Wait one week and make another jump back... problem solved.

Sighing, she stared to the sky, but even the weather was against her because it began to rain. It made just her mood worse…

It wasn't fair. Why didn't work everything as she had planned?

Life sucks...

It really sucks…

_To be continued... _

**o000o**

**My life must be a joke, but nobody can laugh…**

(1) OOPart: a term that an archaeologist would use when he would find a strange part in the ground that shouldn't be there, for example, an iron axe and a dinosaur skull together in stone, which could be possible with Ranma around…


	5. The Dream

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma Half or Tenchi Muyo. I write just for fun and for free.

Note: Time flies… Five months already gone after the last post. I had a little depression, blame the autumn and winter.

Writing this chapter was very difficult for me and I'm still not satisfied, (I don't know how to handle emotions or even to write about a daughter mother relationship) but I realize that it is just a hobby, not more. So, if you find plot holes or 'this person is OOC' and other things… just ignore it and enjoy just the story. This is fanfiction and not a work of science

I couldn't wait to post this chapter, so it isn't checked by a beta-reader. You can expect mistakes… (looks at Deathgeonous.)

Have fun.

Posted: 03/16/2010

**Chapter 5 ****– The dream**

* * *

**Thursday morning, two o'clock**

"What a haul, what a haul," Happosai crowed happily while hopping from roof to roof. On his back he had a large bag full of... panties, stolen panties.

"Oh, SHUT UP!" a too early awakened and half sleepy man screamed through an open window.

The grandmaster of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu was just like Cologne, pretty old, and with his unusual gnome like appearance, he was like a cockroach, the scourge of the neighbourhood. Some even doubted that he was human... He was recognizable by his reddish purple dogi, his nearly bald head with some white hair around his head and he even had something that looked like a moustache. His big old eyes didn't make him looking any friendlier, worse, there really was nothing positive to tell about him than that he was an extraordinary martial artist that however only was overshadowed by his perverse interest in female beauty and their underwear.

This morning Happosai had returned to Nerima and as usual he made a 'great' entry, starting with a new collection of stolen woman underwear. The thought to iron his new little darlings soon, made him delighted. With a nod, he decided that he had enough and that it was time to return to the Tendo's.

However, he became suddenly distracted by a strange feeling and from the roof of a house he saw a strange phenomenon. He could have sensed it a lot earlier, if he wasn't so distracted with his 'hobby'. It was a little blue glowing ball, floating down the street. At first he thought that it was a lost firefly or maybe even a Will-o'-the-wisp, but the feeling was like a Ki signature of a human.

Curious as he was, he jumped down and ran to the strange glowing little thing.

"Oh... it's female Ki-energy!" He reached for it to absorb it for his own body, but strangely enough, nothing happened; it just escaped through his hand like a ghost.

"Hmm... that's strange," muttered Happosai. "I can't absorb it. But this feeling… I know this Ki like no other, but it's so old, that can't be possible!"

"Happosai! So, you have discovered it too…"

The little startled old perverted master looked up and saw Cologne on one of the roofs staring at him. The old woman sighed a little, shook her head and then jumped off the roof.

"So, obviously you want to meet Miss Hinako again. She was the only person that drove you away from this district," the old woman chuckled.

Happosai snorted and shrugged. "What can I say? I have a weakness for beautiful women. I can't hurt my lovely Hinako-chan... But she is indeed very annoying, feh, that's what I got for helping a sickly child years ago. She has totally forgotten her old 'grandfather' Happi."

Cologne could only shook her head and pointed to the strange phenomenon that wasn't waiting for them and had moved farther away. They began to follow it immediately.

"I thought that I felt something on Monday morning, but now that I felt it again, I decided to check it out and it seems that my feelings hasn't deceived me. Happi didn't you noticed something?"

The old man frowned. "That it is concentrated Ki-energy of a woman? It's old Ki, that's for sure."

Cologne nodded, while they were following the strange phenomenon.

"That's my conclusion too. Not many can feel it, but the ones like you and me can almost taste it from a mile away," Cologne confirmed. "Yes, it's really a strange phenomenon. It is possible that this is a Ki residue of someone who no longer exists. But normally the Ki energy would be absorbed into nature. So, why does it still exist? It should be impossible, it's not natural. The only theory I can think up, is because this Ki-energy is not in sync with the rest of nature, and maybe because it is so pure, it's not Ki that you use in a battle."

Happosai scratched behind his head, while still holding his big bag on his back.

"There's probably something that attracts this Ki," the old master noticed. "Let me guess, Ranma-chan is back in town," he grinned.

Cologne frowned only as she continued to hop on her old staff. It seemed that the speed slowly began to increase.

While they followed the phenomenon it soon became clear that it indeed flew in the direction of the Tendo's.

The old Amazon sighed. "Yes, you're right. It is as I feared. Ranma is literally and figuratively speaking a trouble magnet. We will see soon, if our suspicion is correct."

"Ah," Happosai muttered a little annoyed when it flew through the wall of the house.

"Quick, to Ranma's room," Cologne said a little hurried.

They were just in time in front of the window to be the eyewitnesses of an occurrence. The strange phenomenon flew with high speed in Ranma's body. Then her body began to glow blue for a moment and soon everything was normal again. The sleeping panda beside her, didn't noticed anything of what had happened. Genma-panda rolled over and began to chew on his pillow, he was probably dreaming about food. The two elders looked at each other for a brief moment and then shook their heads.

Cologne quickly hopped next to the sleeping redhead and started to check Ranma's Ki. They were very silent, for it was clear that the red-haired girl slept restlessly.

"Yosho, you idiot… you knocked me up… that's it, no more Shinji sake… stupid Oni princess with her gifts…" she muttered in her sleep.

The eyes of the Amazon elder grew when she heard Ranma's mumble and had to fight the urge to face fault. However Happosai didn't heard it because it seems that he was more interested in the bosom of the redheads body and missed even an new important detail of Ranma's face.

With a sigh, Cologne decided to keep this for herself and began to check Ranma's body further. Then, her eyes met with the now seriously looking Happosai which also seemed to draw the same conclusion. The image of the 'wise master', however, was marred by the big bag of ladies underwear that he still kept on his back.

Quickly they left the bedroom and then jumped on the roof of the Tendo's.

"It surprises me that she doesn't look like an old hag like you," was Happosai's response, a comment that earned him a hard hit on his head.

"Old Ki has nothing to do how the body looks like," the old Amazon hissed. "Besides, it has already been assimilated with the rest of her own Ki!"

"Hmpf." The old master crossed his arms and sat down with a thud, with the bag beside him. "I found it already strange that I felt Ranma's Ki when I touched it; couldn't even absorb it. I wonder where it came from and why it is so old."

"This is certainly bizarre. Everything indicates that Ranma's death is not in the future, but in the past," responded Cologne shocked. "But something is not right, because Ranma's Ki here has the same feeling; it's asynchronous! That's the reason why she could assimilate it. We have here a mystery that gives me a headache the size of Tokyo."

"Hmm..." Happosai frowned thoughtfully and stared to the horizon over the rooftops of the Nerima district. "This is fascinating. I suspect that the place where the residual energy came from must be in the neighbourhood. "If there is a grave, it must be somewhere at the old cemeteries... I will poke around and look for it," he said with a brief nod. "Normally I just want to be with my little darlings, but I must admit that even this makes me very curious."

The old Amazon sighed. _"Ranma, what have you done? How did you end up in that mess? I need to find more information about that golden mark before I make a decision,"_ was Cologne's anxious thought.

**o000o**

Ranma was still restless in her sleep, dreaming a strange dream.

**Planet Chitan, somewhere in the galaxy, Earth year 1710**

The brown and white planet Chitan was once a place that was rich with titanium and minerals, but the golden days were over now and the greed of many individuals had left behind a devastation that was really unprecedented. Within three hundred years the once fairly green planet was turned into a desert where water had become scarce. Only a few individuals still tried their luck in search of what little that was left of the metal richness that the planet once had.

However, what only a few people knew was that the planet also had some very ancient ruins. Who or what had lived on this planet was no longer present on Chitan and what had happened to them, or why they left the planet was still a mystery. But the ruins were the only proof that the planet was once inhabited by a flourishing civilization before.

In the present-days the planet still has a few dusty old mine-worker towns. Most of these had a mix of classic and modern architecture, but if you wanted to describe it, it looked mostly like an old Western town in the US.

It was not uncommon for Dog Town that it was visited by foreigners, but this time they got visitors that were not interested in mining. They were two people who were interested in something quite different.

The two people entered an old miner's saloon and looked around. They wore brown and dusty boots and were dressed in a dusty brown hooded cape with their faces half concealed by their hood. The cape was a bit cliché, but they had their reasons. The two arrived not too long ago on this planet, but their faces already showed traces of dust... Chitan wasn't really a great place for a resort.

The fifteen guests who were in the saloon, looked up to see who the two new strangers were but then their curiosity disappeared again and continued with their activity.

"Hello strangers, you want a drink?" asked the grey-haired somewhat fat bartender with pointy ears at the newcomers who took a seat at the bar.

The two people pulled their hood down and the faces of a girl and a young woman became visible. "Tea please," the redheaded girl with a braid asked. It wasn't visible, but her long braid reached under her cape to her hips. Her blue eyes glided to the larger young woman beside her.

A lot of the guests looked up again and surprised looks appeared on their faces.

"For me the same," responded the other woman with a quick nod. She had long black hair hidden behind her cape, long hair that went to her waist. She had warm red-brown eyes like her father which was stark in contrast with the blue eyes of the red-haired girl. But it was obvious that she was family, since her face looked a little like the red-haired girl. With her 1 meter 70, she was also a lot bigger than the person next to her. However, she seemed not to feel very easy in the saloon. Since she arrived on this planet, she had a rather uncomfortable feeling... like something was wrong.

The surprised bartender nodded and reached for a box under the bar. It was rare that tea was asked, and rarer to see two young women in this saloon. Fortunately he was prepared for these things, because you never knew...

"Mom, are you sure we're in the right place? I don't see our guide," the black-haired young woman asked after they took a sip of their tea. She frowned, the tea tasted old, it was clearly not too fresh anymore.

"Don't be impatient Minaho," replied the red-haired girl with the braid. Ranma Saotome Masaki was not scared, but she had to admit that this saloon was not really a pleasant place for a meeting. But the information was very important and the guide was the only person who knew the locations of the old ruins.

The life of an archaeologist was full of peril… if your name was Ranma.

After centuries, Ranma had found the trail of something of inestimable value; the Sceptre of Power. A possible cure… something that she never found on Earth! It was an artefact, which she had thought that it was no more than a myth, an artefact which was claimed that it was so powerful that it even could cure incurable diseases and even remove curses. Myth or not, she could not let that chance slip away. A few months ago she saw with her gift some glimpses of the future, and she knew that somehow the Sceptre of Power would play a part in her life and in the far future… But the only problem was that nothing was set in stone; nothing was for sure, things could still change in the time stream. Where was fate when you could really use it?

But that problem aside, what would she do if she actually found the artefact? What would she really do? Yosho knew of her past and strangely enough he accepted her. He obviously saw more in her than she saw in herself. The redhead sighed inwardly. Wouldn't it be very selfish of her if she would use it for herself now? In fact, it was actually several hundred years too late for her. That she once was a boy, was nothing more than an old memory that had almost lost its meaning. She had children and grandchildren; it would shock her family if she changed back to her former gender... Was it really worth all this?

It was indeed nothing more than a distant memory, and that was the crux of her problem. She had forgotten what it was to be a man. In the beginning she didn't accepted, that she was married with Yosho, until a certain grandmother with mint green hair showed up… A little talk, her curse examined… Time heals wounds, and with time many things will be forgotten. But some things shouldn't be forgotten.

No, Ranma knew deep in her heart that she didn't it for herself. There was one person in her life that she needed to help, and possible a few others…

The red-haired girl gazed wistfully in the mirror that was placed against the wall behind the bar. A few minutes later her attention was suddenly diverted by a white-haired old person in a grey old miner's uniform, who took a seat beside Minaho. It was a Wau, a race that looked like a mix of a dog, a lion (shiver) and a human. In this case, the Wau looked almost like a dog, like a Bearded Collie because the old man wasn't bald… on the contrary, he had a lot of hair…

"Hello… you're Ranma Saotome and the young lady next to you is your daughter, I presume?" the Wau asked Minaho with a hoarse voice.

The black-haired young woman got a twitch in her left eyebrow and shook her head. Then she pointed slowly to her younger looking and smaller red-haired mother beside her. This mistake was not the first time, and it would probably not be the last.

"Oh," the Wau reacted surprised. But his facial expression and his eyes were hard to see through the forest of white hair that covered half of his face.

"My apologies…"

"It's okay," Ranma said half laughing as she waved it away with her hand. "So, our guide has arrived. What is your name? We had only a photo of you, but no name..."

The Wau nodded. "My name is Rapunzel."

The redhead looked strangely at the white-haired Wau. In some way it sounded very familiar in Ranma's ears. In fact, since languages and the meanings behind them had no secrets for her…

"You have a girl's name?" the red-haired girl blurted out, proving that she still had some trouble with keeping her mouth shut, even after centuries.

Rapunzel reacted very shocked. "Of course it's a girl's name! I am a woman, can't you see that?" the Wau answered angrily.

"Eh heh... sorry," Ranma said totally surprised and she began to scratch behind her head while showing an innocent grin. Her daughter, Minaho however, became very red and quickly looked ahead. Rapunzul's sex was difficult to determine, not to mention the almost invisible bosom. It was even a mystery how that name ended in this corner of the galaxy… even hundred-and-two years before the brothers Grimm published the story of Rapunzel on Earth. It was probably just a coincidence…

After this unusual surprising revelation, the three settled at a table. Rapunzel had ordered a beer or at least, a drink that looked like beer and the other two ordered just plain water; the tea was terrible.

Ranma was very direct. "I understand that you're an expert regarding the many ruins of Chitan. I'm especially interested in this ancient temple; the temple of Mu."

She put a transparent electronic tablet on the table and shoved it to Rapunzel. The tablet showed an image of a partially eroded temple that was carved out in a granite cliff.

The old female Wau stared at it and then she pushed with her hand the bangs of her white hair aside to get a better look of the image. She had surprisingly bright green eyes that were full of life.

"I recognize it. It is a well-known and yet also a very infamous place. Many treasure hunters have lost their life there, it's an accursed place. I myself never dared to enter that temple… I'm not that brave. Are you sure that you want to go to this place?" Rapunzel replied worried.

The red-haired girl shrugged nonchalantly and looked at her daughter.

However Minaho sighed, and nodded slowly, not that she had much choice. It began to look more like a rule than an exception that they always ended up in a dangerous situation. Even the simplest expedition could turn in a disaster if Ranma was involved; she was a magnet for trouble. Some of her friends that thought that archaeology was boring have never met her mother; otherwise they would probably doubt her sanity. How long has she worked for her mother? Fifteen years? Twenty years? It was a relatively short time in her long live but despite the many successes that she and her mother had, she became tired of the dangers… Really, the offer of Seto Kamiki Jurai to work for her again began to look with each day more inviting. If she could choose between bad and worse, the choice was easily made. It was only because of the love for her mother that she was still going with her, and she needed somebody to keep her in check.

Rapunzel seemed to hesitate at the response of the two young women, but nodded. "I hope you know what you do; I will not guarantee your lives. In fact, I bring you to the place, but don't think that I go with you in that accursed place," she warned.

Ranma just chuckled. "Yeah… yeah, it's not the first time that we go on dangerous ground, it's no problem."

The daughter was however worried. It was true enough that they often got in dangerous situations, but why had she this feeling? She couldn't ignore it…

"Mom...?"

Minaho hesitated.

"What is it, Minaho?" The red-haired girl asked while she turned to her daughter.

The black-haired young woman frowned. "I have a serious bad feeling... Maybe we shouldn't go."

Ranma stared for a moment at her daughter, and then she turned her head back and frowned.

Her daughter, Minaho, was 415 years old now and Ranma understood years ago that her daughter was usually correct, an intuition that she unfortunately missed. But the Sceptre of Power was a very important artefact.

"Sorry daughter, but I am determined to go," she said resolutely after a silent moment. "Maybe it's even better that you return to your tree ship; you can easily oversee the situation from there."

The black-haired daughter doubted for a moment and then shook her head. "No Mom, its maybe better that I go with you. From out the ship I can't help you directly..."

With an earnest look in her eyes, Ranma stared at her daughter, but said nothing and gave only a brief nod. Her daughter was literally old enough to make her own choices.

"Okay, let's go..."

**o000o**

Ranma rented an 'old' rusty hover vehicle, with air conditioning. I was still very modern in Earth terms, and left the driving to her daughter while she studied the details of the old temple on her tablet. The guide had kindly offered to drive the car since she was more familiar with the terrain, but Ranma had some reservations about her driving... for some obvious reasons.

She played with the end of her braid while she studied the information of the temple. She wondered what to do in the next future. A single glance at her daughter was enough to realize that it was time for her daughter to look for another job. Well, it was a wonder that her daughter managed to work for her that long. It was only unfortunate that her daughter was still unmarried. She had secretly hoped that her daughter would meet a nice man during the expeditions. Ah, well, she was not the type to play matchmaker; worse, she hated such people, especially Seto Kamiki Jurai. She shuddered at the thought. Maybe it was even because that reason that Minaho was still single.

She knew that it wasn't good to be alone…

But what could she say about her own life?

She and Yosho, married. Could you believe it? An old part in her mind was still flabbergasted; a very old part couldn't even imagine it. This could only happen because she saw Yosho as a very, very good friend, and now he was even more than that. All this happened because she was stuck in a girl's body… the 'curse' had played her like a fiddle.

Her life took a different turn after she had her first child, Tenma, her son. If you would think logically about it, your brain would blow a fuse. Born as a boy and years later giving birth as a woman… it was beyond strange. But she had not the time to think about it. All her attention was focused on raising her son, and a few years later, her daughter, Minaho.

When she became pregnant with her first child she had to accept that it was definitely over. And the reason how this happened? Ironically enough, it was sake! Damn shinji sake again! And it was her fault too. It happened when she was drunk again after too much sake. She seduced Yosho (stupid hormones) and he didn't protest after waiting that looong, of course not. After that moment she had totally sworn off alcohol. Two of these blunders in her life were enough. Married in drunkenness and giving her virginity in drunkenness, it was enough, thanks, but no thanks... she was lucky that she still could remember little parts of it afterwards.

But you know, she thought that she was special… but watching Earth's nature could give you enough answers that she wasn't really that special. A nice example is The Slipper Limpet, a pest of oyster beds, an animal that can change slowly from male to female. Slugs and snails are hermaphrodites. The Red Banded Parrotfish can change its sex from female to male. The Seahorse takes the cake; it's the male that becomes pregnant. Ironically, many of these are sea creatures; it comes always to water, it seems. She had to thank Yosho for all that knowledge; it surprised her that he knew so much about Earths animal live, or had he secretly studied this subject behind her back to help her to ease her mind?

It is all fine and dandy and mind gobbling, but the path of life wasn't easy.

She had seen how Tenma grew up, her first son. He married a fine girl and they had a lot of children and grandchildren. But like Minaho he didn't inherited the Jurian genes of his father. Yes, he was a happy man and for an Earthling he lived a long life thanks to modern medical science. But it wasn't fair… She almost couldn't hold her tears when she remembered the life of her first child, the baby the she held in her arms, and the man that he became. He was dead now; he died when he was 221 years old. It was just not fair and almost unnatural to survive your own child. She sighed; she had shed enough tears for her son.

Now she knew how Cologne must have felt.

Minaho glanced at her mother. She was uneasily very quiet, but the look in her mothers' eyes was enough to tell her that she probably was thinking about her brother. Just like her mother, she missed her older brother. She saw her brother grew old, but when it came to growing old, her mother was still a great mystery; she still looked like a sixteen old girl and she often needed to use a disguise to hide her youthful appearance. However, she never accepted a medical upgrade for her body. It seems that she was afraid that it messed up her body and her gift, ironically.

She herself knew what Ki was. She used some Ki techniques with her sword style, but she wasn't a real fighter and didn't like martial arts. But her mother told her once that she was so old because she knew how to control her Ki and her youthful appearance was because of a locked curse. Minaho found it a very strange idea to call it a curse. Her mother told that she once knew at least two persons that where three hundred years old thanks to their mastery of their Ki. Minaho made a mental shrug; it wasn't really impressive anymore thanks to medical science… and a lot species had also a long live.

But her mother would always be a special person for her. She could still remember her youth and the warm feelings; the memories of looking up at the face of a beautiful smiling red-haired mother with blue eyes. She always wondered what the meaning was of the golden mark on her forehead, the symbol of her gift. Because of that, the people in the neighbourhood thought that she was a goddess… It was really funny, because her mother always went mad when she heard about it.

With the centuries everything changed, even her father grew a little older. Yes, everything, except her mother. It was as if time itself couldn't touch her.

Sometimes even she believed as child that her mother was not human. Her mother was unbelievable strong and fast. And thanks to her gift, there was no language that she not could read, write and speak. She could teleport to far places and she knew that she even could cross the distance between planets in an emergency; it seems that it took a lot of energy from her. Sometimes her mother got glimpses of the future and warned then her father or the neighbourhood. But once she was fourteen years old, she had heard her mother muttering that she was still stuck in time. When she asked what the problem was, she only shook her head, sighed and told her to forget it since it was no longer important.

She was a mysterious person, but a great mother. If only she wasn't such a trouble magnet!

**o000o**

It was a few hours later when the three arrived at the ancient temple that was carved out of the cliff. It was windy outside, but it was a welcome change with the hot desert miles away.

Ranma whistled out of admiration when she saw it.

It was always a special sight. When you would think about an ancient temple you would expect a typical Greek or Roman stone building with many columns. But this was nothing like it. It was a trapezoidal front with a very complex and strange pattern that was carved out in the blue-grey granite rock. The patterns looked just like a complex decoration, but Ranma knew better.

When the red-haired girl stood before the temple, she spoke aloud the inscription that was carved around the entrance.

"He who seeks the lost, he who searches for the unattainable, he who looks for power.

But, he who finds the truth in this temple has courage and is seeing and wise!"

With a nod Ranma turned around and looked at her daughter and their guide. "That's what is written around the entrance. It's the writing style of a lost or extinct species, 18,000 years ago; the Mu. This race had four eyes instead of two and no one with two eyes can decipher it without technical assistance."

Rapunzel was surprised. "I didn't even know that the strange pattern was a written message, unbelievable! But you said yourself that you need four eyes to read it, why can you do it?"

The redhead grinned and flipped her long braid off her shoulder. "What can I say… it's a rare gift..."

In the meantime Minaho took out behind her cape a small black tinted device with a little hologram screen. It was a scanner, a device created specifically for archaeologists. The scanner read the text and gave also the same result. She nodded in agreement with the correct translation of her mother. Not surprising, since it was her mother herself that updated the scanner regularly.

"It's time," Ranma said to her daughter. Then she looked at the guide. "Rapunzel... give us five hours, okay?"

The guide sighed and warned again. "Do you really want to enter this death-trap? Rethink it while you still can!"

But Ranma grinned, showing her teeth. "I never back away from a good challenge, and Ranma Saotome never loses!"

After having said these words she made a come gesture to her daughter and they both entered the temple. Ranma was fearless, but that wasn't the same for Minaho... Her bad gut feeling hasn't disappeared...

**o000o**

The light began to disappear when they went deeper in the hall. Ranma held her hand out with her palm up. A small orb of Ki-energy formed above her hand and it began to float around as if it had a life of itself. Minaho used a simple but powerful flashlight. When they looked farther in the hall they saw that it ended with a doorway to a long corridor.

Walking into the corridor, Ranma looked around and ran her hand along the wall. It was smooth as glass, which was a clear sign that advanced techniques were used. The floor however was build with an irregular stone pattern.

The scanner of Minaho made suddenly a bleep and showed something. The young woman stopped and looked down, frowning. She saw a somewhat inconspicuous square tile in the floor structure.

"Oh boy," said Ranma not too surprised when she looked to the same place that picked Minaho's attention. "A tile to activate a trap, it's rather cliché."

"Cliché or not, but that can't be said of those unfortunate people farther away," Minaho remarked dryly.

The red-haired girl raised an eyebrow. When they looked farther in the corridor they saw the bones of the victims. Silently they walked further and then Ranma crouched down beside a skull, or at least what was left of it.

"Crushed between two walls," Ranma noted, and looked at the lines in the wall. A long stretch of the corridor was a trap. A mechanism would have pressed the left and right walls together. If you could run very fast you could escape it… otherwise it would be a very painful death indeed...

"We're lucky that the scanner is advanced enough to pick up such things," muttered Minaho. "Wise and seeing huh? The warning 'enter at your own risk' would have been more appreciated."

When they walked deeper into the temple they discovered a lot more annoying cliché death-traps. In fact, there were so many death-traps that it would have even made the most hardened treasure hunter desperate. You could be impaled, crushed, suffocated or fall into the infinite depths. These unlucky treasure hunters couldn't tell the tale about it since mother and daughter found them mostly very dead.

"Man, I do not know what these guys were up to, but they apparently didn't like half work. In my whole life I have never seen so many traps in a single temple or ruin," Ranma said tiredly. With a deep sigh she began to lean with her back against a wall.

Minaho's face turned white when she heard a click.

"MOM!"

A solid block of granite above Ranma's head came loose and fell down. The breaking of stone was heard and a lot of dust and gravel was spread.

Ranma's left eyebrow twitched, her red hair and face was full of grey dust and her glowing right fist still up.

"Honestly… I think they had just a sadistic pleasure in building this… this death-trap..." Whatever this structure was, Ranma couldn't call it a temple anymore.

Eventually they entered a dome-like hall that had twelve entries in all directions that could lead to somewhere or nowhere. Ranma's Ki orb floated up to the middle and lit the whole hall in a blue glow. The dome-like ceiling was engraved with thousands of characters.

Ranma looked around en frowned. She wanted to make a comment but then she felt a presence. She motioned her daughter to stop and she quickly turned around and took a battle stance only to find… nobody. Surprised she looked around and she blinked her eyes.

"Well, that's strange... I could have sworn that someone stood behind us," the peeved redhead stated.

"We're already too long here… and all these traps are working on our nerves," Minaho guessed. "I hope that we quickly find the artefact, we lost a lot of time... and they really didn't make it too easy for us."

The two looked around and Ranma scratched behind her head. "We have almost reached our goal," she concluded. "This is probably the last obstacle we must overcome."

She walked slowly to the centre of the hall, while Minaho checked her scanner to locate their position so that she knew which corridor was the exit. Within this hall you could easily loose your orientation. Then she scanned everything around her and looked at the result.

The daughter frowned. "Elf corridors that are equally long and it looks like they all have a dead end; five of them contain biological traces, probably from the unfortunate treasure hunters. But that gives us no clue which way we should take."

So, there were ten corridors that were traps. Five of them were already found, but there were still five traps left; five dead ends, quite literally.

The red-haired mother looked up and stared at the thousands of characters that at first glance made no sense. But Ranma knew that it contained a hint, but what?

"Minaho, scan the dome and let it check on patterns or forms in that chaos up there," she asked with a thoughtful face.

Ranma's suspicion was correct, when the device after a few minutes let them knew with a bleep, that it found something. The outline of an arrow had become visible, a giant arrow with the point above the correct entry. The outline of the arrow was made up of seven characters. It was a very mean trick to hide a clue; without the scanner it would took a long time to see it.

"Very good, but not good enough," Ranma said with a grin.

They walked into the corridor that eventually ended, blocked with a stone wall. There was a hand sized square tile in the middle that Minaho pressed without hesitation. This time it did something good and the stone wall shove aside. A large illuminated white round area became visible. In the middle of the hall was an object that surprised Ranma.

It was a ruby on a silver pedestal, big as a grapefruit.

When they entered the hall their eyes fell on an old charred skeletal in a reach position, just a half meter from his goal. Apparently the ruby was protected by a deadly force field; you could hear the electric hum.

Minaho averted her gaze from the sad scene and began to read the information on her scanner. "He came so far, only to fall prey for the last trap," she said, shaking her head. "The ruby is not even real… it's a hologram."

The red-haired mother shook her head silently. The blue Ki orb floated back to her stretched out hand and was assimilated back into her body, no sense in wasting energy. Minaho turned off her flashlight as well and she began to look around.

Ranma scratched behind her head and frowned. "Where is the Sceptre of Power? It must be hidden somewhere."

The daughter scanned the area, in hope to discover something. The scanner picked up a lot of strange things, but not the sceptre. Then she walked along the circular wall and stopped at a certain place. Here was a square tile too, though harder to see.

"You found something, daughter?" Ranma asked hopefully, as she walked to her.

"Well, yes... it is something. I hope that it is not a trap," she answered and after a slight hesitation she pressed the tile. "Pray and hope…"

First nothing seemed to happen, but then not far from the tile that she had pressed, a white stone block shove slowly a meter out of the floor, and formed a little square hole in the centre of the top. Minaho looked at her mother. "It seems that we are missing a piece of a puzzle."

The mother began to smile. With a flick of her hand, a strange small transparent crystal cube appeared in Ranma's right hand. "Try this one. That's the thing that we found on the other planet."

Minaho's raised her eyebrows. "That one? It's that thing with the hidden message within thousand cooking receipts? Some of them are very good too…"

With a feeling of doubt, the daughter placed the crystal data cube into the hole and an electric spark went through the crystal. The light in the hall flickered.

The white hall turned dark and the electric hum stopped. After a brief pause, a hologram of a person appeared to them. The projection was still sharp and clear even after 18,000 years.

It seems that the little crystal cube was the key indeed.

_"Greetings strangers, and my complements that you came this far. My name is Julius, the last ruler of Mu,"_ sounded a strange low voice in the heads of the two women that they surprisingly could understand.

The person, who spoke to them mentally, was a light-brown man with short white hair, a broad nose and a square face that gave him a hard personality. He was dressed in a strange red grey spacesuit, with his helm in his left hand, as if he was about ready to leave. Of course, it were the four grey-blue eyes that stood out the most, two pairs of eyes, one above each other. He also had a remarkable higher forehead.

_"This is our last message of a race that is no longer present in this galaxy. We all have moved to the neighbouring galaxy, driven out by our enemies and fleeing for our shame. But as ashamed as we are, we admit that we were fools, blinded by our own power. No longer are we the supreme rulers in this part of the galaxy. This is our home galaxy now..."_

The person made a gesture to an image that suddenly appeared; it was the Andromeda galaxy. Ranma raised her eyebrows. They moved to the neighbouring galaxy? Were they really able to bridge that distance?

_"The source of our supremacy was the Sceptre of Power. And undoubtedly this is the reason why you are here. Although, the sceptre is no longer in our possession," _the man said, shaking his head. Disappointment was to see on the faces of the two women, but the hologram continued.

_"At the peak of our power, we ruled almost one quadrant of the galaxy and our government was placed on our own created world, a ring world, a world that knew no night. It was also the place where we kept the Sceptre of Power."_

A holographic image of a giant blue-white ring appeared. In the centre of the ring world was a yellow star. The ring had an earth like surface, with water and land. The red-haired girl had no idea where it was, but it was certainly an impressive sight.

Their attention however was drawn by the sudden appearance of a great female being that almost overshadowed the ring world.

"We were, however punished," the holographic man sighed_. "When we thought we were all powerful, suddenly the Choushin Tokimi appeared; a hyper dimensional being."_

Tokimi's hologram began to speak: _"If you are as powerful as you say, then prove it. I will take your ring world and the Sceptre of Power. Give proof of your power, by taking your world and the sceptre back from me. How you will do it, is up to you. You have three days to move out… You can stay if you wish."_

Ranma and Minaho blinked their eyes. Who was this Tokimi? Why had they never heard of her? And what was a Choushin?

_"Three days later our world disappeared, together with the Scepter of Power. Then we got the coordinates where we could find Tokimi's domain. It wasn't a surprise that her domain wasn't in this dimension, but that wasn't an obstacle for us, since we are well versed with travelling to other dimensions. That's why we became so powerful, because we found wisdom and power in other places…."_

Ranma got a thoughtful face. It wasn't easy to breach a dimension; you need a lot of power… That was something that she couldn't do without risking her life.

"_When we managed to enter Tokimi's domain, we faced the guardians. Countless giant drones that almost looked like green shields that were practically immune to energy weapons. They attacked with simply mass based weapons, swords that penetrated easily through our shields and armour. We couldn't win, no matter how strong our ships were. Our armies were massacred and we hadn't even a chance to get close to our ring world. We were even surprised to see more then one ring world in that dimension…" __  
_

The hologram of the ring world disappeared and made place for a strange spectacle, which could only be described as nothing else than as a chaotic collection of worlds, structures and other things that were difficult to describe. A heavy battle was seen between the countless guards against a fleet of almost 100,000 battleships.

The voice of the holographic man sounded bitter and sighed.

_"We finally gave up. We had lost our world and the Sceptre of Power, and our mighty fleet was almost completely destroyed. We had no longer any power, and we had to flee for the vengeful races that saw their chance to pay us back for what we did in the past. We decided to migrate and build this temple in remembrance of our race. Travelling to another dimension however, was no longer an option after loosing more of our important planets and their power sources."_

After that, the hologram froze…

"That's all?" Ranma asked very disappointed. "All this trouble, only for an old message!?"

The holographic man came suddenly back to live and he showed in his hand a small crystal cube.

_"Take this data crystal. This has the complete history of our people and the coordinates of our lost ring world and the Sceptre of Power. Use this knowledge wisely, and hopefully you three may learn a lesson from it." __  
_  
The holographic man offered the data crystal to them, and Ranma walked to 'him' to receive it. The red-haired girl had no idea how it was done, but the thing that she got in her hand was real.

"May the three of you prosper well… farewell," were the last words before the message disappeared. The light returned after that. The pedestal with the ruby was gone, but the skeleton was still there.

Ranma blinked and then stared at the small crystal cube in her hand. Then she walked to other cube that was still plugged in and took it out. It had thousand interesting cooking receipts that she still could use…

"Mom... we are not alone here…" Minaho said while looking nervously around.

Ranma looked surprised at her daughter. "What do you mean?"

"Three people Mom, the hologram talked about three people!"

The red-haired girl took immediately a battle stance and closed her eyes while she focused her mind.

"Vague, I feel very vaguely the presence of somebody else in this hall; he's using a cloak," Ranma noticed irritated. Why didn't she notice it? Even the computer of the hologram noticed it… while she could not. She was slacking off… or became senile? The last thought gave her a shudder.

"Show yourself!"

An imposing sarcastic laugh echoed in the white hall and a green energy globe appeared that quickly dissolved. A broad and large man became visible, floating a little above the ground. The man had cyan hair with two small long bangs beside his face, yellow eyes with red pupils and had small dark glasses on his nose that gave him a study type face. He had a dark green mantle and the rest of his clothes were blue. Everything was designed to give him imposing look. Anyway, his whole appearance shouted villain, an arrogant man that you would love to hate.

He introduces himself with a mocking bow. "Greetings ladies, my name is... Kagato. Undoubtedly you have heard of me..."

"Kagato..." The red-haired girl began to frown.

"The infamous pirate and ruin buster," the shocked Minaho added and her face was ashen. Of all the people that they could meet it had to be Kagato. No wonder that she had a bad feeling the whole time.

"The mysterious and eternal young Mrs. Ranma Saotome and her daughter Minaho, nice to meet you," greeted Kagato with a tinge of arrogance. "Mrs. Saotome that can virtually speak each language and decipher any written text; your gift is as mysterious as your origin. Two centuries ago you just pop out of nowhere and became quickly famous because of the many successes. Now you're a famous archaeologist that knows how to unveil even the deepest hidden secrets and for the last twenty years you are working together with your daughter. It was amusing to see you both in action, but now you need..."

The redhead cut him short. "It's nice to know that we are so appreciated. But I can't say that about you. In some cases I had to do it with the remains of the destroyed ruins that you've left. It's ironic that a very important clue to this place was in one of the ruins on planet Gotamaze that you in your 'enthusiasm' so thoroughly had destroyed," she told him with a snort.

One of Kagato's eyebrows rose up. "Oh?"

Somewhere in the background you could almost hear a braying donkey…

"So, if you want this data crystal, you can forget it. You've had your chance..."

Minaho glanced nervously at her mother. It seemed not wise to challenge Kagato. She wasn't sure of they could handle this man of that calibre.

"Oh, then tell me little redhead," Kagato responded with a grim smile. "What do you hope to achieve with it? I doubt it is for the historical babble. It is the Sceptre of Power, isn't it? I too, was looking for the sceptre, and when I heard a rumour that you found it, I began to follow you."

Ranma was silent and frowned. She could only guess who leaked this important information. When she would find the traitor…

"But even then, do you have the means to go to that dimension, and to return alive with the sceptre, little redhead?" Kagato asked sarcastically. "And what if you have the Sceptre of Power, what will you do you with it? It's probably no more than a museum piece for you, something to boast. Nothing more than an artefact that belongs behind glass, so that millions can admire it from a distance. I have bigger plans with it, little redhead! I give you the choice; give me the data crystal data voluntarily, or die together with your daughter! Don't think too long about it... it would be a shame to waste your life for this..."

There was no doubt that the arrogant man meant it seriously.

Her daughter looked anxiously at her mother. "Mom ..."

Ranma really wished that she could have direct control over Time; she knew that it was possible. Slowing time in a battle could give her the upper hand against this guy. But her gift was practical handicapped now. Since the day that she pulled that stunt in her drunkenness, centuries ago, it was just impossible for her to travel through time. It happened on the day that she had married Yosho… ugh. Maybe it was an unwritten rule… Maybe it had something to do with paradoxes or to avoid fragmentation of time.

Ah, well, she did not lose completely her gift over time… but then she needed to go the second phase of her gift, something that she would try to avoid at all cost, if she had the choice.

But she had plans with this data crystal… big plans…

However, Ranma had also another big problem. The old Cologne rarely used Ki attacks and not without reason. The older you get, less Ki was generated and that was the case with Ranma. So, she might look young, but she was older than Cologne, by more than a century... and she could feel her age well. She could no longer go all out, shooting blasts left and right.

She never accepted a physical 'upgrade' because she was just afraid that her curse and the magical tattoo would go haywire. They tried for a bond with a Jurian Tree, but it seems that the trees didn't like her for some reason. Who knew what could happen if she had accepted the treatment, she knew that she wasn't that lucky.

Anyway, the red-haired girl had to make an important decision. She could give Kagato the data crystal but she knew that he wasn't able to get that artefact; Kagato overestimated himself. There was only one person who could retrieve the Sceptre of Power and unfortunately that was not herself, nor Kagato.

Her decision was made…

The red-haired mother looked at her daughter. "Minaho, didn't you wonder why I want so badly the Sceptre of Power?" she asked in a serious voice.

Minaho looked at her mother strangely but shook her head and glanced to Kagato that slowly became impatient. "I saw that you were very excited when you found out about the legend of the sceptre, but I didn't thought any special about it; for me it was no more than archaeological object."

"Hmm... Daughter, it might sound surprising, but for years I'm looking for an artefact that can break a persistent curse. It's for a very special person, who is probably still looking for a cure."

_"For a person in the distant future indeed,"_ she added in thought.

"What?" The daughter looked surprised at her mother. That was news for her... her mother was looking for a cure for somebody?

But Minaho couldn't get a chance to ask some questions, since her mother made a step forward and showed the crystal data cube to Kagato. With a flick of her hand the data crystal disappeared with a plop into her personal subspace.

"Sorry Kagato, but the data crystal isn't for you. You see, in fact I need it probably more then you. All you want is power; I however want to use it to help someone in need."

The villain frowned and seemed to think for a moment, but then he shrugged. "A surprising answer, but very foolish. I don't care about such emotional things; it has no meaning for me. With eternity, emotions are pointless and will be forgotten. So, to me you're just a fool... and like the fools before you, you will find only death."

A green energy sphere began to form before Kagato and fired it without warning at Ranma and Minaho. The two women reacted quickly and jumped aside, followed by an explosion that blew a crater in the floor.

"What a heartless freak!" the black-haired woman hissed.

Minaho grabbed her ray gun that she had hidden behind her cape and shot at Kagato. The blue beam however, bounced off by an unseen force field. Two more shots only confirmed it and she had to move away to avoid this time a green beam.

The red-haired mother made immediate use of this distraction and attacked him. But Kagato's shield wasn't only to deflect energy beams. Ranma had the unpleasant surprise to discover it and with a cry of pain she was mercilessly electrocuted by the invisible force field. The force field was relatively weak since Kagato wasn't in his battleship, but it was still strong enough to make it for Ranma pretty difficult.

With a cry of pain Ranma rolled over the ground, but quickly jumped up, her brown cape and her red hair still smoking. The red-haired girl pulled off her cape with a snarl and threw it on the floor as she looked at him angrily. Under her cape she was wearing a pair of black trousers and a purple-blue blouse with long sleeves.

"A nice attempt... little redhead. I know that you are a master in martial arts, but it is quite useless against me," Kagato said with an arrogant grin. But for he could attack her, an energy beam shot right past his ear and he had to turn his attention back to Ranma's daughter.

"Ah!" the daughter cried surprised. Minaho's weapon was pulled out of her hand by an invisible force. It seemed that Kagato also had telekinetic powers. With a well-aimed shot from his hand, Minaho's weapon was destroyed and he grinned.

But the grin turned into irritation when he avoided a new attack from Ranma. He pulled in a reflex his head aside, when a sword slashed him. It nicked one of his cheeks, something that would happen again in the far future... and he would remember it. The gash on his right cheek began to bleed.

Ranma grinned when she saw that Kagato wasn't completely invulnerable. It was very interesting that he had green blood…

Kagato looked with a snarl at the redhead that stood now in a defence sword stance with a long katana that was illuminating from pure white Ki energy. Ranma could pull off this trick because the Ki sword was still a part of her and energy loss was minimal. The villain recognised the strange energy that was used to form her sword and his snarl changed in a more thoughtful expression.

"Interesting; that sword is made of your own bio-energy? Not many can achieve this mastery of their life-force. But why could you penetrate my shield? Very interesting, the power and energy frequency of your Ki must be quite different."

Kagato's injury on his face disappeared quickly while he studied Ranma's sword stance.

"You know Jurai's sword style?" he asked while he formed a broad sword with his green energy, making it denser than he normally would do.

He resumed his attack, starting with shooting a number of green energy beams at Ranma.

The golden tattoo on Ranma's forehead glowed while she dodged the beams and teleported away before his eyes.

A little surprised Kagato parried the attack of Ranma that appeared suddenly at his side and they began to exchange a few fast attacks and then they stepped away from each other.

"Seriously, teleportation now? You're full of tricks, little redhead. You start to look like my former teacher and she too, just didn't want to grow up," he snapped and teleported himself to another place where he quickly shot again a few green beams at her that she simply avoided.

Minaho had her own blue laser sword ready and was watching the fight carefully while she waited for the right change. She saw that her mother kicked up her fight a notch and she began to smile a little. If it came to martial arts and swordsmanship, almost nobody could match her; even her father couldn't keep up with her when she was deadly serious.

After a few minutes the villain gritted his teeth when he was pressed in the defensive. Cuts were seen all over his garb, but inwardly he was impressed; he had even the feeling that she was holding back. It was troublesome, he couldn't handle the difficult attack pattern and again he had to teleport away to another place to take a breath. He had to admit that she was one of the better talented sword fighters that he had met in his long life. But there was something nagging him, something that surprised him even more.

"That's not the normal sword style of Jurai," hissed Kagato. "…Lady… this style, it's a mixed form… But in the many fighting forms I recognise one important part... it's the Royal sword style of Jurai! You can't be a Saotome! I know for a fact that they don't learn this style to any outsider!"

"I'm a Saotome! Well…okay… the jig is up. I'm family by marriage, if that is what you want to know," the irritated Ranma replied with a snort, wondering how she had to beat the incredible annoying person that more teleported and was shooting around than actually did fight.

The villain had started to guess which of the royal family had a golden triangle on her forehead. He also had noticed that it was more than a tattoo alone. Was there a reason why the Masaki family kept the existence of these persons a secret? It wasn't easy to find more information about it, since the Jurian family knew how to keep a secret… well… a secret. They even kept secrets between themselves. It could easily take a few centuries before you could find out the truth.

"Moko Takabisha!"

Kagato teleported away before he was hit; it was a reflex, honed by centuries of experience… But he wasn't surprised that the red-haired girl could even shoot a ball of bio-energy. He made a mental note to upgrade his shield against this new form of bio-energy for the next time.

"Blast, I missed," a very disappointed redhead hissed. She knew that she had him off-guard since he was in deep-thought for a second; he was like a cockroach. Her attack was a small one, but still a waste of valuable energy.

The fight however, took an ugly turn.

Minaho was surprised when Kagato was suddenly in front of her. However, she didn't hesitate and attacked him immediately with her laser sword. As the daughter of Ranma and Yosho Masaki, she had also no problem with handling the sword.

A brief skirmish followed with the daughter and slowly Kagato began to tire of this stalemate situation. This time his shield could deflect most of the attacks. The mother and daughter were both well skilled with the sword and he began to understand that he had to use a different tactic. Most people would flee when the even heard of his name… but these girls were really troublesome.

Minaho was not prepared when Kagato attacked her unexpectedly with a powerful wind-force. The wind was so strong that she flew back and smashed with her head first against the wall, loosing her weapon. She was just dazed, but that gave the man enough time to grab her by the neck and to lift her forcibly up with one hand.

"Minaho!" Ranma cried worried. This was bad, very bad!

The daughter, however, could do nothing against him and to her horror she felt that her body began to change into stone. She cried out in panic.

Shocked and helplessly watched Ranma how Kagoto dropped a statue. The sound of a heavy stone hitting the ground sounded like a long echo in the white hall. The shocked expression of Minaho was immortalized in stone.

"Well, the situation has clearly changed in my favour," Kagato reacted nonchalantly. "My demand has changed now; the data crystal in exchange for returning your daughter back to life."

"And who says that you keep your word?" Ranma hissed bitterly; she could hardly restrain her tears.

The villain laughed. "You have little choice, lady..."

She seemed to consider what to do, and her golden triangle glowed up briefly. Subsequently, the look in her eyes became hard.

"Why didn't I heed my daughter's warning?" Ranma muttered with a sigh. "So, this is the price that I have to pay..."

Kagato just started to laugh hard, never thinking about the deeper meaning of her words.

With a frustrated face, the red-haired girl pulled a small crystal cube from out her personal subspace. She got not even the chance to hand it over personally since Kagato took it from her with his telekinetic powers. It flew through the air and landed in his right hand.

"Okay, you have the data crystal... So, please, change my daughter back," Ranma asked frustrated. She could barely retain herself from begging, for that was something that she would never do.

It was to deaf ears, since Kagato had only his eyes for the crystal cube in his hand. "The Sceptre of Power, at last; could it contain the ultimate universal energy that I'm looking for?" he muttered. He was talking as if he had the sceptre already in his hands…

Suddenly the white hall began to shake violently and pieces of the ceiling began to fall down. The hall was at the point of collapsing and it wasn't surprising. The area was littered with impact craters; it was even a miracle that it hadn't started earlier.

"Hmmm, I see that my presence here is long overdue," Kagato reacted calmly while he looked up at the ceiling. Then he looked back at Ranma and grinned.

"If you want to see your daughter returned to her old state, please visit me on my battleship Sōja. Well then, goodbye lady, or is it maybe farewell?"

With a mocking laugh he teleported away from the collapsing area.

"Go figure, never trust a bad guy," Ranma sighed. She ran to her petrified daughter and picked her up. "Minaho, don't lose hope, I will turn you back, I promise."

Her golden mark glowed and she also teleported away with her daughter. It was just in time, because the ceiling collapsed a moment later.

**o000o**

Rapunzel stared uneasily at the digital clock in the cabin of the car. They were late, too late. They had promised that they would return within five hours, but now the Wau waited already one hour longer. Normally she would have left, but she felt that the two persons were capable enough to return alive. It would be a shame if they would die, she really liked them.

"I will wait ten minutes... ten minutes more," she said to herself with a sigh.

On hour ago she had said exactly the same.

She looked aside with dread when she suddenly heard a rumbling that came from out of the ruins. Dust and smoke blew out the entrance in the open air. What were the two girls doing? She began to fear for the worst...

Suddenly a blinding golden flash was seen through the windscreen of the car and the Wau blinked her eyes.

The door was pulled open and Rapunzel watched confused how Ranma threw a statue in the back seat of the car and jumped in the seat next beside the Wau.

"What's…?" Rapunzel question was cut short.

"Step on the gas, fast! The whole thing is collapsing!" Ranma yelled.

The Wau didn't ask twice and with a jerk they were pushed in their seats through the sudden acceleration of the car.

It was just in time. The whole area shook and rocks began to fall that created a chain reaction. A great part of the cliff collapsed and the entrance of the temple was completely buried under tons of rubble... the ancient temple was gone forever.

When they were far enough from the disaster area, they stopped and looked back. They could see the dust and smoke rising.

"Where is Minaho, your daughter?" Rapunzel asked, worried.

Ranma's face became grim. "My daughter is with us, but she can't answer at this moment. I guess it's now the time to help her..."

The Wau was surprised, looked in the back of the car and was startled with was she saw.

"What happened to her? She is completely petrified..."

Ranma didn't answer and just pulled her petrified daughter out of the car and put her on the ground. Then she sighed deeply and stared at the sky and closed her eyes. Somehow she felt tired and homesick. She wished that she was at home with Yosho back on Earth and not facing this terrible dilemma. It was ironic; even with her gift she still made mistakes. She was human… not a goddess, as many would think…

The Wau who watched her, shook her head. How could Ranma help the poor child? She shook her head but then she froze. The area around them began to crackle and a cold wind began to blow, which was very strange in the hot climate of Chitan. Surprised, Rapunzel watched how the body of the red-haired girl began to glow golden, the mark on her forehead visible glowing. The air became almost static when slowly a golden wheel began to form behind Ranma's back. It was a thin ring like wheel with a diameter of 1 meter and 20 centimetres wide. It was decorated with strange complex silver engravings, like an electric layout of a computer board. Rapunzel could even see sparks following the lines.

She had in her life never seen something so beautiful and strange, she was completely spellbound by the appearance.

The wheel began to spin slowly that quickly speeded up and generated a strange buzzing sound.

Ranma knew that she couldn't go to Kagato. She knew that they would end up as a hostage… and worse. There was no other option for her to turn her daughter normal, then to do it herself. It could only be done with her gift, her special gift that could break her away from reality, and gave her some degree of control over time and space.

But there was a price to pay for this power. The second phase was a stronger version of her gift, and it took so much of her mana energy, that the source of her curse wasn't enough; it would also take a very large part of her life energy!

The red-haired girl touched the face of Minaho with her hands. Then she grimaced when she began to feel the effect on her body while she began to manipulate the time and space. She fought back the terrible pain that surged through her whole body, but at last she saw a reaction. The petrified body glowed with a white aura, and suddenly Ranma's daughter returned back to life with a loud scream.

Minaho abruptly stopped screaming when she saw the open sky and the face of her mother and Rapunzel. She blinked her eyes when she thought that she saw a golden wheel behind Ranma's back. However, after her second blink, it was gone… She would ask her mother later about it.

"Mom...? What happened?" She slowly rose up.

Ranma's face was serious for a moment but then she began to hug her and smiled. "Kagato had turned your body into stone... but it's all right sweet daughter; your back now."

The black-haired young woman rose up and began to look around. "Where is that bastard!"

"Sorry girl, but he is gone. I was pushed into a bad position after he turned you into stone. I had to give him what he so badly wanted. After that we both had to flee because everything was collapsing," Ranma replied with a faint grin.

"Oh Mom... I... sorry..." Minaho stammered, realizing they had failed and all their effort had been for nothing.

Ranma began to sigh. "I don't blame you Minaho. It was my entire fault, I'm sorry. I didn't listen to your warning, but I never imagined that we would face Kagato. But believe me, you're my own treasure, dear daughter, and more worth than every treasure in the universe whatsoever. My heart almost died when I thought that I would lose you too!"

The red-haired girl stared at the sky and shook her head.

"But we can't linger on this planet any longer. Though, it will take some time before Kagato realizes that he has the wrong data crystal. I wonder how many days it will take before that idiot understands that it is the now useless data crystal that we found in the old destroyed temple on Gotamaze."

Minaho blinked. "You mean the data crystal with the hidden message within the thousand different cooking receipts?"

The mother chuckled. "That is, if he can read it. So far I know we're the only ones that can decipher the writing of Mu. It's a dead language and nobody took the trouble to keep it archived."

"Mom! I had big plans for that thing!"

Her mother smiled. "Don't worry. I copied everything, the receipts are safe…"

Mother, daughter and Rapunzel began to laugh and started to walk back to the car.

It looked almost like a good ending but…

Suddenly Ranma began to feel unwell and began to cough. She fell on her knees as she held her hand over her mouth. But when she looked at her hand, her face went deathly pale. She saw red blood on her hand. She was coughing up blood... and it wasn't because a broken rib. She had it foreseen but even then, it was far worse if you experienced it. This was her price to pay…

"Mom? Mom what is it?" Minaho asked worried, and when she saw the blood, she put her hand over her mouth. "Oh Mom!"

Minaho communicated directly with her tree spaceship to make a medical pod ready in the emergency room. It looked like that Ranma's adventurous days were over...

**o000o**

With open eyes Ranma stared to the white ceiling in the bedroom. She could hear the sound of twittering birds and the snoring of a panda on her left. The redhead turned her head to the window and the sunlight shined into her eyes. She blinked and turned her head to the snoring panda. Then she looked back to the ceiling.

This was the bedroom in the house of the Tendo's, right?

"This was the most bizarre dream, that I ever had," Ranma muttered. "I can't remember that I ate Akane's cooking yesterday…"

She slowly crawled out of her futon and stretched her body. She decided just to forget it… it was just too bizarre to be a memory of her past.

Yes, it was just a dream… she was sure of it.

_To be continued…_

**o000o**

**Look, it's Indiana Jones! No, it's Lara Croft… Oh no, it's Ranma Saotome!**


End file.
